Reading List: The Exposed City - Mapping the Urban Invisibles

If you love maps, not as just as visual artifacts but as part of design and planning methodology, Nadia Amoroso's recently published 'The Exposed City: Mapping the Urban Invisibles' (Routledge, 2010) will validate, comfort, and quite possibly amaze you. That's the effect it had on me - after quickly devouring this visually rich resource - I was full of ideas on representation and new uses for maps as valuable tools for urban studies, planning, and design.



While ostensibly advertised as a book on planning and geography, 'The Exposed City' offers a much broader natural extension of traditional static mapping as a tool for urbanism. Taking a number of historical precedents and new technologies, Amoroso looks at the vast amount of complex information that is collected and exists for urban areas and asks a simple question: "If a city was able to be defined by these characteristics, what for would it take? How could it be mapped?"

Mapping today is a common and accessible exercise (with hoards of of historical precedent to boot). Many designers work in GIS, have available digital tools and online maps, and get access to information that is often employed for diagrammatic purposes, utilized for a neo-McHargian overlay mapping. Most designers are familiar with a range of mapping techniques - but this book will challenge your concept of what you consider a map and how these may inform your work. The concepts in the book look at 'maps' of the urban invisibles - that information perceived yet hidden away in data sets - as a new opportunity for designers. The books thesis is regarding maps per se, but specifically "...the role of maps as both presentational results as aesthetic objects and informative tools, which could be used to influence architectural, landscape architectural and urban design moves." (p.xi)


:: Nolli map - image via @rchitecture

In short, the book moves through the work of Hugh Ferriss, who developed amazing graphic interpretations of buildings using the 1916 New York zoning ordinance, touches of the more well known work of Kevin Lynch (Image of the City), Richard Saul Wurman (Understanding USA), and visual communication guru Edward Tufte (Envisioning Information), satirically provocative MVRDV/Winy Maas (Datascapes), and finally trend-setting landscape architect James Corner (map-drawings). Together these actors outline a methodology of data-mapping that offers many potential expanded opportunities for architects, landscape architects, and urbanists to generate, represent, and develop data-driven visions for a range of issues.

Instead of going into massive detail (which Amoroso does nicely and which from reviewing my notes would take multiple posts) I thought I'd give a few snapshots that resonated with me, and leave it for you to discover all of the rich content and leads outlined within. Trust me - get the book - it will give you plenty of ideas and fodder for discussion and thought, whatever problem, scale, solution, or design you make be working through.

I was immediately struck in Chapter 1 by the work of Hugh Ferriss (which was 100% new material to me) and his amazing three-dimensional renderings of urban potentials based on complexities of codes - specifically crunching the zoning codes of 1916 to create 'potential scenarios' that gave developers ideas of how they could maximize buildings within the existing parameters. In the following image, the graphic evolves from a massing study, gaining articulation, fenestration, and finally a realistic potential urban massing. The result is not a building, but a "...sculptural impression of a completed design for a skyscraper in which the careful arrangement of the masses in accordance with the legal and economic measures of zoning ensures the building's practicability." (p.14) Or, simply, a map.


:: Evolution of the Set-back Building - image via the/hectic/interlude!!!

Our historic perceptions of the stylistic architecture of the 1920's may lead us to see a common building form in these drawings, but at the type of architecture at the time was quite revolutionary (a collection of his work is titled 'The Metropolis of Tomorrow'). These drawings provided a blueprint for many architects and developers of the time - meaning the 'maps' influenced the future urban form: "Indeed, as the new breed of towers began to rise, Ferriss's moody drawings of their mountain-like masses, terraced setbacks and soaring pinnacles proved as crucial as any built work to setting the tone for New York's super-charged urbanism of the 1920's" (p.31)


:: image via Artect

In addition to outlining the early role of the 'renderer' in early architectural work (which has evolved, but to tell you the truth graphics say a lot, even with modern architecture). Ferriss shows the power of the pencil (or charcoal) in translating complex data into visions of urban form.

This idea of drawing and graphic representation is the crux of Chapter 2 - a mixed bag incorporating the work of Lynch, Wurman, and Tufte that investigates "...the use of diagramming and mapping as a means of simplifying the complexity of urban flux (changes in urban form, i.e. the development of parks, streetscape, new buildings, etc.) in essence to review the complexities of the city." (p.41) Most of these works are well-known and taught at many universities, so a quick overview will suffice.

As mentioned in the text, Lynch used mapping to draw out the 'imagability of the city', which "...is the quality embodied in a physical object that gives it a high likliehood of generating a strong image within a given observer." (p.42) While the resultant produced drawn line drawings are compelling on their own, they are even more powerful when compared to each other to showing perceptual differences between individual memory maps, field sketches and what this means for urban form and potential markers to influence the evolution of our mental maps.


:: Imageability Mapping (Lynch) - image via CSISS

While Lynch gave us a much-used urban vocabulary of paths, edges, nodes, districts, and landmarks which has persisted in use in mapping for planning and design, the work of information architects such as Wurman investigate the ability to graphically represent massive or complex sets of data - whether urban or merely statistical. In Wurman's view, the map is essential: "You cannot perceive anything without a map. A map provides people with the means to share in the perceptions of others. It is a pattern made understandable; it is a rigorous, accountable form that follows implicit principles, rules and measures. Maps provide comfort of knowing in that they orient us to the reality of place." (p.57)


:: Understanding Demographics (Wurman) - image via Architectradure

Wurman's work encompasses a range of disciplines - some not specifically urban, but all relevant. His more recent work takes it back to global urbanism with the 19.20.21 project, a study of 19 cites, with 20 million people in the 21st century, which will "...focus on globalization patterns and explanations that will become key tools for mapping and understanding our future city." (p.59) Switching scales dramatically, Edward Tufte has been imminently influential in a new focus on visual communication, stating that "...the packaging of information is something that ultimately determines how much is accepted and used by other individuals." (p.60)

This focus on graphic legibility isn't necessarily 'mapping' but is more focused on the means and methods of delivering information. In this case, Tufte is best known for amazingly complex but clear drawings using rules (i.e. integrity of scale, appropriate color schemes, correct proportion, and elimination of 'chartjunk') used rigorously to display information. Somewhat in conflict with the more abstract creative aspects (shown in upcoming topics) these data rules are essential to understand and achieve "clarity, correctness, and coherence"... something we should all strive for in any graphic communication.


:: Napoleon's March (Tufte) - image via Edward Tufte

Chapter 3 includes exploration of the work of Dutch firm MVRDV, particularly their groundbreaking planning studies "...using data to generate alternative urban and architectural forms and as a means to help guide planners to urban design decisions." (p.68). Implied as plausible fictions, these graphics crunch available numbers into a 'statistical description' making 'datascapes', or abstractions of physical, social, cultural, and environmental features in graphic representations.



:: China Hills Datascape - image via arqa.com

Not solutions per se, these graphics merely outline "...the maximum limits within which the architect can produce his designs.", providing a touchstone to potential decisionmaking. . The absurdity of creatively generating data, then using "...architectural autonomy to impose 'expert' authority, that is, the architect plays a part as the director of political powers in design." (p.70) While there is some debate about the overall relevance, as a tool for urban exploration of ideas these datascapes are a work of pure genius, in particular in works such as Pig City - which take scenarios and create actual spatial configurations that satirize concepts of growth, localism, and realities of scale - provoking dialogue and debate.


:: Pig City - image via Archilogy

This concept, and the bulk of the chapter, references the amazing 'Metacity/Datatown' which ought to be required text for any budding urbanist, at least in terms of new methods of analysis and representation. In a nutshell, the premise involves quadrupling of the current population of the Netherlands, portrayed in a range of visual 'scenarios' encompassing living, agriculture, CO2, energy, waste, and water consumption. These concepts could yield dull and dry map objects, but instead focus on 'extremizing scenarios' that "...takes a leap in regards to mapping conventions by visually documenting the urban consequences spatially and by providing a potential new urban form." (p.72)


:: Datatown - image via Serial Consign

One example above uses an abstraction (red boxes for areas of habitation) juxtaposed with graphic representation of other materials, in this case waste "...such as household products, dredging sludge, vehicle wrecks, hazardous waste, office products and waste from construction and demolition. These amounts emerge as hills an mountainous forms, which create a new landscape." (p.80). The chapter ends with an interview with Maas, summed up in the following quote:

"Datascapes give a more mathematical answer towards the complexity. The second component, which was surrounding meta (data types and kinds), deals with larger urban processes that became more relevant in the practice again. Architects, like me, were only dealing with objects. There was a need to redefine architectural object through some meaning in an urban and larger format, and urbanism deals with issues of numbers and statistics and of course larger sclaes, more than the individual." (p.88)

Chapter 4 get's into Corner's map-landscapes (best captured in the book 'Taking Measures Across the American Landscape" w/Alex Maclean)... are a hybrid of maps and drawings: "...a combination of map and drawing styles such as collage crafted by Corner as a means to interpret the aerial photos, and thus, creating a map-drawing of the site." (p.94) Less specifically data driven, these maps are aligned closely with operational practices in landscape architecture, a blending of the creative and the technical. Getting out of the typical uses in design and planning - the concept is that mapping loses power with mere tracing or analysis, but instead "Maps present... an eidetic fiction constructed from factual observation. As both analogue and abstraction, then the surface of the map functions like an operating table, a staging ground or a theatre of operations upon which a mapper collects, combines, marks, masks, relates and generally explores" (p.100) That 'fiction' is where creative ideas come from.


:: image via Pruned

Amoroso also links these mappings with the field of landscape urbanism, connecting the ideas of change, temporality, and movement - embedding this in a typically static medium. Regarding LU: "...it is the potential mapping capability and visual representation of this new discipline that is most appealing. Landscape urbanism can be summed up as an arresting medley of landscape techniques. These include mapping, cataloging, triangulating, surface modeling, managing, phasing, layering and others - which can also be combined with urban design techniques such as planning, diagramming, assembling, allotting, zoning, etc. - to broaden the visual palette of the mapping field." (p.107)


:: image via Pruned

The book outlines much of this early work, along with an interview with Corner that touches on many of the methods - including formative inspiration from McHarg, the connections between landscape and maps, and new avenues for research - all with Corner's trademark verbosity... An excerpt: "...I believe another body of research should look at how maps are inevitably cultural contstructs, not simply inert rational data banks, but active diagrams that extend a certain agency over how the world get's shaped. Artists and conceptualists are good at seeing maps in this way, not so much as informational devices, but as performance stages that can critically script certain spatial geographies in fresh ways." (p.112) These mapping techniques show up in some of Corner's later work in competition entries and diagrammatic mappings for such projects as the High Line and Fresh Kills - showing the progression of this method in practice.

A summary of the intent is mentioned in the foreword by Richard Saul Wurman Amoroso makes the connections from Hugh Ferris, to Edward Tufte, James Corner, Kevin Lynch and MVRDV's datascapes - creating maps as: "...statistics through time, the visualization of changing complex data that allow one to see the things they've always seen but never seen...", and utilizing "...map-landscapes...as the preeminent way of organizaing and understanding complex data relative to demographics, marketing, the environment, traffic patterns, as well as the less romantic descriptions of crime and unrest." (p.viii)

The final section discusses some new tools (such as Google Earth) and the work of the SENSEable City Lab at MIT, which is worth checking out for their uses of sensors to develop new maps of invisibles. From their site: "The real-time city is now real! The increasing deployment of sensors and hand-held electronics in recent years is allowing a new approach to the study of the built environment. The way we describe and understand cities is being radically transformed - alongside the tools we use to design them and impact on their physical structure. "


:: image via SENSEable City Lab

The bulk of this final section investigates a number of new 'map-landscapes' by others and created by Amoroso - inspired by the sum of precedents contained in the first four chapters. While the whole point is there aren't rules, she does outline a number of useful strategies for generation of map-landscapes gleaned from the precedents and studies - worth including:

• Treat data as spatial representations
• The visual representation of data is related to the numerical representation
• Use the data as the palette to guide the form
• Use effective artistic licenses
• Dramatize the data
• Choose an appropriate method or representation
• Apply more lighting to emphasize larger quantities or points of interest in the data
• Select the most telling viewpoint to profile the map-landscape
• Visually represent the overall communicative message

The precedents and examples in 'The Exposed City' showcase an old/new method of using mapping techniques to display information in ways that can inform new processes such as landscape urbanism and complex urban planning and design. The ability to capture and reuse the myriad data in the world not just for analytical means, but with the interweaving of art and urban theory, gives designers new tools for representation and understanding of the complexities of the urban condition.

A Perfect Perch

Atop the rooftop chaise lounge at the Sattler Winery in Tadten, Austria by Architects Collective (spotted via Arch Daily)


:: image via Arch Daily

Elizabeth Caruthers Park

One on the more recent additions to the park inventory in Portland is the neighborhood park for the South Waterfront Area. (see here and here for more on SoWa). The park is named Elizabeth Caruthers Park (after one of the pioneering founders of Portland - on whose original land claim the park now lies) this new addition offers another iteration of the national firm paired with local for park projects. As this site isn't one of those you 'happen to be near and want to swing by', it's been less on the radar than some other visible additions to the Portland landscape, which I will be showing off soon as well.

I did see this a couple of times during construction, but had an opportunity and some sunny weather this weekend to swing by and snap a few images of the completed park.


:: image (c) Jason King - Landscape+Urbanism

The $3.5 million park design was completed by Hargreaves Associates, along with local firm Lango-Hansen and artist Doug Hollis. Finished size is 2 acres, and the design plays off the proximity to the river, high density mixed use buildings, and the potential to be a flexible event space.

:: image via Portland Parks and Recreation

The context of the park is interesting, as the area is now starting to fill up with more buildings, giving some scale to what was previously a flat 2 block area. This makes me think that the scale and design of the park will be much more appropriate given the final build-out of this dense neighborhood. The designers worked a number of elements into the space and I think successfully captured the ability to split the space up into smaller 'rooms' without diminishing the whole. As mentioned on the PP&R website, the park offers a range of uses for this emerging neighborhood. These include:

"Urban Gardens: A community gathering area with movable tables and chairs and a built-in bocce court, a garden retreat area with granite seat walls and a historic marker honoring the site of Portland's first cabin, and an environmental play area with a spray/play stepping stone feature and seating logs.

Naturalized Landscape: Boardwalks, naturalized plantings, undulating topography with stormwater detention, and Song Cycles public art created by Doug Hollis.

Open Lawn: Flexible space, including an 8' tall sloped landform for seating, sunning, and play.

Other Features: A variety of trees and plantings, pathways with benches, park lighting, a festival edge on Bond, electrical infrastructure for events, bicycle racks, a drinking fountain, dog waste bag dispensers, trash receptacles, and streetscape improvements."

The dominant feature of the park is the large open grassy area, which was being used mostly for dog walking. The sculptural mound, obviously is a typical Hargreaves signature, but seems restrained here as a backdrop and tilted plane that could work as amphitheater seating. While maybe 10 feet at it's apex, you don't feel terribly high up due to the flatness of the surrounding landscape. Dare I say the berm needed to be much larger and more dramatic to really have the impact in this sized space.




:: images (c) Jason King - Landscape+Urbanism

The individual rooms contain such features as water play, sculpture, and interpretive elements all bordered by waves of plantings defining the spaces while allowing hints of what lies beyond. The water play was interesting as it was surrounded by rubber playground tiles (the slightly darker brown) for safety - and the individual pieces of the feature itself use two different rock textures for an undulating appearance.




:: images (c) Jason King - Landscape+Urbanism

The waves of plantings give definition to the space, along with the curving pathways. This layering provides an interesting foreshortening of spaces adding to their comfort and intimacy..


:: images (c) Jason King - Landscape+Urbanism

The plantings and pathways also lead to other rooms, for instance this flexible seating area and bocce court. The ability to move furnishings around takes advantage of the user preference for where and in what configuration they sit. These seats surround a simple decomposed granite court (the same d.g. used for secondary pathways) again simply delineated with sparing use of stone.




:: images (c) Jason King - Landscape+Urbanism

The remaining perimeters of the park (to the south and west sides) feature a series of low depressions and raised boardwalks, creating a wet, shade garden with Pacific Northwest species mixed with selected non-native ornamentals including groves of multi-stem birch which are a nice touch. The boardwalks cut through these wet zones, and vary from a sinous curving variety here...


:: images (c) Jason King - Landscape+Urbanism

... to the much more rigid straight boardwalks weaving through the south section. The shade is predominantly from the building directly south, casting a shadow almost completely within this zone - and giving a very different feel from the heat of the open lawn areas - probably even more so in the height of winter.


:: images (c) Jason King - Landscape+Urbanism

The sculptural elements 'Song Cycles' by Doug Hollis are also dotted through this area, making for some visible movement and drawing the eye skyward. I was kind of disappointed with these - essentially an oversized bicycle wheel with some cups to catch the wind and swing them round. From the RACC website, they were "... Inspired by a historic photograph of bicyclists resting at a nearby site, these “Song Cycles” are activated by the wind."


:: images (c) Jason King - Landscape+Urbanism

And a quick video of them in action I took...

'Song Cycles' from Jason King on Vimeo.

These areas are definitely shady at mid-day, offering some relief from the heat. They do suffer from a lack of usable seating, as most of the paths are raised above grade with an occasional seat. Obviously meant to be moved through more than to linger, the shade and coolness makes it a refuge worth hanging around for and I wish there would have been a larger space carved out on this end mirroring the more sunny north side. Perhaps one must make due with just hanging your feet over the ipe decking into the water below?


:: images (c) Jason King - Landscape+Urbanism

It was interesting how little you notice the proximity to the interstate from inside the park - it registering just as a low drone in the background. While the context of the park seems cut off from the riverfront (which will hopefully seem more appealing once it is completed), another contextual element that's fascinating is the constant movement of the Portland Aerial Tram nearby the park. The little pill from pill hill kept drawing my eye upwards in fascination (the thing has been in for a couple of years now, and I seem to never tire of watching it)... another short video:

Aerial Tram from Elizabeth Caruthers Park from Jason King on Vimeo.

As a new neighborhood park (in an emerging neighborhood that some still say hasn't emerged) I was expected to see the park completely devoid of people, even on a sunny Saturday. While not teeming, there was a respectable crowd moving through - either hanging out in the seating areas, lounging on the berm, running dogs in the lawn, and grabbing a quick smoke break from a restaurant across the way. All in all I give the park high marks - and it's going to be interesting to see how this space evolves - influenced by new building in the neighborhood, more people residing and working here (like the LEED Platinum OHSU Center for Health and Healing in the distance), and intentional active programming of the spaces. The designers did a great job of incorporating a lot of activity and flexibility into 2 acres, and I'm looking forward to seeing this park mature and thrive. Now about that berm...

Disaster Imagery

The Gulf oil spill - documented by Photographer Edward Burtynsky, best known for his fabulous work 'Manufactured Landscapes'... capturing the essence of the breadth of disaster and human-wrought destruction. (via Treehugger, more images on the exhibit at the Metivier Gallery).


:: image via Treehugger

Portland Photographic Record - Places

A completely different scale from the concentrated landmarks - and perhaps the antidote to the over-documented - comes from the great Portland Grid Project a photographic essay of the city using a loose framework of grid points in which photographers are unleashed to document the 'other' places in the community. The plan, photographers are directed to a confined zone using a AAA City map: "...that was cut into it's individual grid sections and randomly picked each month."



What you get isn't the key points - but a Portland you may know, but rarely notice. Photos include the photographer, grid point, and date taken.


:: JIM CARMIN -M13 11/96 - image via Portland Grid Project


:: ANN KENDELLEN -F6 2/03 - image via Portland Grid Project


:: CHRISTOPHER RAUSCHENBERG -G4 4/00 - image via Portland Grid Project

Some background of this long-standing effort: "The photographers of the Portland Grid Project spent nine years (1996-2005) systematically documenting this city we live in. Now, with some new faces and perspectives, we continue looking at our ever-changing city in Round Two. We are using a map of Portland divided into grid squares a mile and a half on a side. Each month all of us photograph the same randomly picked square, using a variety of films and formats. At the end of the month, we meet to look at everyone's photos. We estimate that as of this date we have created a complex, detailed urban portrait, consisting of about 20,000 images of Portland, its land forms, architecture, people, residential neighborhoods, industrial sites, waterways, parks, and sometimes just a shadow or the look of fallen leaves on a newly mowed lawn."

I often return to the site to check out the latest - and now that the project has entered Round 2 it becomes an ever growing archive of the true heart and diversity of the city - at least as seen through the lens.


:: GEORGE KELLY - L12 4/08 - image via Portland Grid Project

:: NANCY BUTLER - G9 6/08 - image via Portland Grid Project

:: SHAWN RECORDS - K13 1/05 - image via Portland Grid Project

Ephemeral Urban Gardens: Installations

Examples of ephemeral productive agricultural landscapes give an indication of the possibilities of occupation of urban sites for education and growing food.

LAND GRAB CITY
A recent installation called Landgrab City as part of the Shenzhen & Hong Kong bi-city Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture. Designers Joseph Grima, Jeffrey Johnson and José Esparza have created a farm in the middle of an urban square in Shenzhen, China. (via Inhabitat / Dezeen).


:: image via Dezeen

Not just an urban farm, the project is a metaphor for local agricultural production. "Conceived as an experimental investigation into the full extent of Shenzhen’s spatial footprint, the installation is comprised of two parts: an map of one of the city’s dense downtown area, home to approximately 4.5m people, and a plot of cultivated land divided into small lots."


:: image via Dezeen

More from Dezeen: "This land is a representation, at the same scale as the map, of the amount of territory necessary to provide the food consumed by the inhabitants of the portion of city sampled in the map, projected to 2027 (the year China is expected to overtake the US as the world’s leading economy)."


:: image via Dezeen

"Landgrab City is an attempt to visually represent the broader spatial identity of the 21st century metropolis; it proposes a new spatial definition of the city and thereby a more complex understanding of urbanism, one that no longer considers city limits as the boundary of its remit, but instead looks beyond – even across international borders – to the spatial, social, economic and political implications of the planet’s rapid urbanization."


:: image via Dezeen

The educational aspects are evident - even if the overall metaphor is less visible. The connection of people to knowledge of the foods they consume is necessary as we move from agriculturally focused living to the majority of people living in urban areas. This confrontation of the site right in a dense urban area gives a powerful statement as a visible connection of farm to city.


:: images via Dezeen

CITY ECO LAB
A second proposal, via VULGARE, is a "City Eco Lab together was l’Ilot d’Amaranthes,a five-year-long project in which St Etienne designer Emanuel Louisgrand, in partnership with Galerie Roger Tator, has created productive gardens on abandoned sites in different parts of Lyon."


:: image via VULGARE

The site specificity of each intervention allows us to apply concepts that fit the context and needs based on the surrounding areas and the site characteristics: "L’Ilot d’Amaranthes is a perfect model of the kind of activity that we need to see in every city and town. What shines out from the project is that each intervention is unique to that place and that time. This is a sustainable way of thinking: Understanding what makes each place unique, and then defining tools and infrastructures that can be adapted to it."


:: image via VULGARE

Ephemeral Road Paint

Ubiquitous markings in our roadways are a fact of life. From road striping, lane delineation, and construction utility locates - the street is often a rainbow of color and line. Ways of expanding this notion in interesting ways to take-back some of this area of cities and make us aware of the patterns underlying or within our urban sphere include projects such as the Blue Road or these lighted wayfinding traces - offering methods for making streets more interactive and informative or to reveal underlying processes. Another simple addition to this concept comes via GOOD linking to Abitare and a post about guerilla street painting in Berlin:


:: image via GOOD

Via Abitare: "Last week a group of cyclists dumped 13 gallons of paint on the road at Berlin’s busy Rosenthaler Platz, creating a series of colourful lines as cars drove through. The various colours of paint were dumped onto the road in large puddles at different locations throughout the intersection. As traffic drove through, the paint was spread around creating lots of colourful lines. The whole action took only a few seconds: bikers had poured paint from big boxes in front of cars that waited for green lights. So the cars and their wheels, if the driver wanted it or not, became the brush tool for this guerilla public art piece.The creators of the project posted signs on post nearby explaining that the paint wasn’t harmful and would simply wash off with water."




:: images via Abitare

And a video of the site in action:



There's a great set of photos on Flickr.

Sukkah City

An interesting competition and potential for installation is Sukkah City. A recent email from one of the co-organizers Joshua Foer explains the concept: "...it aims to radically reinvent the original green building: the sukkah. The sukkah is an ephemeral, elemental structure traditionally erected by Jews for one week each fall. Its ancient design constraints require that it have a roof made of shade-providing plants or trees, through which one can see the stars. Sukkah City will be a visionary village of 12 radically experimental sukkahs put up for three days this fall in Union Square Park, NYC."


:: A typical modern Sukkah - image via Beliefnet

Adding to the complexity of these interventions are a series of 'rules' that guide development, based on what amounts of ancient building codes such as "A sukkah may be built on top of a camel." or the more distinct: "A whale may be used to make a sukkah's walls. Also a living elephant." More pragmatics revolve around structural components like: "The sukkah must have at least 3 walls, but the third doesn't need to be complete. The walls must remain unshaken by a steady wind."


:: image via Sukkah City

The most intriguing element with the blending of architecture and landscape is the idea of the vegitectural roof made "...shade-providing plants or trees, through which one can see the stars." This can be interpreted in simple ways, with a covering of materials called s'chach using woven bamboo or palm leaves - keeping remaining openings for starlight viewing.


:: image via Wikipedia

The variations of course encompass the fully vegetated, such as these partially and fully vegetated varieties.


:: image via Israeli Museum Jerusalem


:: image via St. Marks Oakland

With a broadly interpreted rulebook and innate program of ephemerality, the entries should be an interesting mix - all juried by a pretty esteemed cast for determining winners. Entries are due on August 1, with installation of a dozen winning entries in in Union Square Park on September 19-21.