Abstract
In my talk I will present a recent joint work with Chmaj and Schmidt on radially symmetric vacuum gravitational collapse in $4+1$ dimensions. The key idea which allows us to evade the Birkhoff theorem is to introduce dynamical degrees of freedom corresponding to deformations of the spatial three-sphere. I will discuss the process of convergence to the Schwarzschild black hole in this model and will demonstrate the discretely self-similar type II critical behavior at the threshold of black hole formation.