Submit your LOI or RFQ for the 2023 Chicago Sukkah Design Festival

The Lawndale Pop-Up Spot is excited to team again with Could Be Architecture and others for the 2023 Chicago Sukkah Design Festival - and we want your involvement! The Chicago Sukkah Design Festival (CSDF) pairs community organizations in North Lawndale with diverse architectural designers to design and construct sukkahs, small outdoor pavilions built for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Working collaboratively, teams explore design literacy, social justice, and neighborhood futuring.

The Festival celebrates cultural heritage and amplifies solidarity among the Jewish community who lived in North Lawndale historically, the predominantly Black community that resides there today, and the broader Chicago community. It engages the neighborhood's multicultural history, builds interfaith partnerships, and elevates the role of design in building an anti-racist city. During the Festival, the landscape of unique sukkah structures is activated with cross-cultural public programming, , bringing together intersectional pairings of neighborhood groups. After the Festival, each sukkah will be relocated and re-installed at the facilities of the community organizations that co-designed them, as vibrant new permanent spaces; for example, micro-museums, neighborhood farmstands, & book nooks.

Planning for the second annual CSDF (to launch October 1, 2023) is currently in progress. Are you interested in participating with us this year? We are requesting Letters of Interest from Community Organizations based in North Lawndale, as well as Requests for Qualifications from Designers, through April 23, 2023. For questions, contact chicagosukkahfestival@gmail.com.