The Assembly of Miriam
From within the folds of the Ávila palimpsest, The Assembly of Miriam seeks to recognise and reinvigorate the once hidden Sephardic community of Spain, providing an architecture that shelters and facilitates a reclamation of Jewish ancestry. The Alhambra Decree of 1492 forced a large portion of the Jewish community of Spain to convert to Catholicism or be expelled. Many descendants of these Conversos are now interested in reidentifying with their Sephardic ancestry and heritage. Recent years have seen the emergence of the Paths of the Sepharad, routes that connect and reveal Jewish heritage across the cities of Spain.
The Assembly of Miriam is a station on these routes and a centre for national research. A genealogy archive is anchored onto a Babylonic library that conserves texts pertaining to Jews in Spain, including literature on the Ladino language in an attempt to increase the spoken population. The Assembly hosts living quarters for academics that wish to travel to Ávila, engage with these collections and, through a communal refectory and shared garden, connect with the local community. A specific archival collection focuses on female-centric anatomy and reflects the rituals and ceremonies that are held in the Well of Miriam, a bathhouse for women to take mikveh.
Intersecting with the topography of the site is a Wall of Names that creates a threshold between public and private realms. It holds a vertical cloister from which the singing of prayer may permeate through the Assembly.
