chestnut pavilion – “sukkah city” warsaw by michal supron from poland

general information:
exhibition dates: 1-10 october 2012
location: plac grzybowski, warsaw, poland
office: centrala “designers’ task force”

sukkah history:
sukkah is a impermanent structure created as a commemoration of the dwellings, which gave a temporary shelter to the israelites on their migration away from egypt.

sukkah’s design rules:
• “the roof must be made from something that once grew in the ground, and is no longer attached to the earth”
• “in day, one must have more shade than sunshine”
• “at night, one must be able to see the stars from within the sukkah, through the roof”
• “the sukkah must be at least 10 handbreadths tall”
• “the roof cannot be made of utensils, or anything conventionally functional when is not part of the sukkah”
• “the third wall doesn't need to be complete”
• “roof cannot be made out of food”
• “the sukkah must enclose a minimum area of at least 7 x 7 square handbreadths”
• “the sukkah must draw the eye up to its roof, and to the sky beyond”

chestnut pavilion:
following the above mentioned “manifesto” our proposal for the sukkah refers to both its location and specific time of the year adding other meaningful layers to the already quite characteristic construction typology. warsaw is a place, where at this time of the year, kids have a great opportunity, to get to know basic concepts of construction for the first time. they gather chestnuts from the ground and then connect them with wooden sticks attempting to create simple forms which often resemblance animal figures. we have decided to take up a challenge of verifying, whenever it is possible to use the chestnuts as a real construction material. hanging from a rather iconic wooden structure the small fruit is assembled into a catenary, to fulfill the function of roof and walls at the same time.

structure details:
dimensions: 2.0 x 2.0 x 2.4m
primary structure: wood
secondary structure: string and wooden sticks
roof and wall cover: chestnuts (over 8000)

links:
www.centrala.net.pl/our-work/chestnut – official project’s website
www.miastezkoszalasow.pl – official event website
www.sukkahcity.com – new york’s “sukkah city 2010” website

centrala
designers' task force
warsaw-poland
www.centrala.net.pl