Rice students’ sukkah rises

From left, Rice student Ilya Rakhlin and Nicholas Pagel and Mason Willard of Imagination Woodworks raise the first wall of the sukkot. Photo by Ilya Rakhlin

Rice University students who won a recent Rice Design Alliance/Rice Architecture Society mini-charrette to design a sukkah for neighboring Congregation Emanu El have now built the structure. Students on the Pause Box team created the sukkah, a small devotional shelter where people eat, drink and sleep during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, at the temple.

Members of the design and construction team were architecture majors Ethan Chan, Ilya Rakhlin and Belle Carroll, mechanical engineering major Mike Hua, computer science major Jake Peacock and sociology major Maddie Bowen. Architecture major Lara Hansmann and architecture and art history major Jenny Heon organized the charrette that took place Sept. 8-11. Hansmann also took part in the Oct. 5-8 construction, along with contractor Nicholas Pagel of Imagination Woodworks. The structure will remain in place for a week.

The sukkot takes shape. From left, students Ethan Chan and Ilya Rakhlin, Imagination Woodworks’ Nicholas Pagel, student Mike Hua and Imagination Woodworks’ Mason Willard. Photo by Ilya Rakhlin

Mike Hua spreads the canopy. Photo by Hannah Wang

A rendering of the finished sukkoh. Illustration by Ethan Chan