Holcim Awards “Next Generation” 2nd prize 2011 North America

Temporary festival structure using recyclable building components, Providence, RI, USA

Type of project:	Materials, products and construction technologies
Start of construction:	September 2011
Main author:	David Jon Getty, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, United States
Further authors:	Matthew Jacobs, Stephanie Gunawan, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, United States

Holcim Awards “Next Generation” 2nd prize 2011 North America presentation for “Temporary festival structure using recyclable building components, Providence, RI, USA” (l-r): Member of the Management Board of the Holcim Foundation, Alexander Biner, and winners Stephanie Gunawan, David Getty, and Matthew Jacobs, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, USA

Project description
This small construction project explores the reintroduction of the ancient phenomenon of “Sukkahs”, temporary structures, biblical in origin, ostensibly used for one week as a dwelling during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. The basic principles of the small structure as an ephemeral, translucent and not fully enclosing hut are taken up in the Shim Sukkah as a wooden structure relying on one material and construction element – prefabricated stacks of cedar shims. Uniquely, this secondary construction material, commonly used to fill small gaps or spaces between objects, becomes the main feature of the construction, providing the needed shelter and capacity for rather easy dismantling and reconstruction.

Comment of the Holcim Awards jury North America
The jury commended the project for the immediate concept of the built structure, but moreover for the fundamental research on the complexity of processes, focusing on the construction and its effects, the relation of material, light and thermal effects. Many principles of sustainable construction are directly or indirectly selected as subject or applied, yet in microcosm and as a theoretical object. The research has been transferred into an object of stunning aesthetic quality and shows great sensibility for its construction material.

Image gallery
Temporary festival structure using recyclable building components, Providence, RI, United States
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