Client

• Congregation Beth Sholom
  

Services

• User community participation
  
• Integrated sculpture
  
• Fabricator coordination
  

Collaborators

• Elsa Hoffman
  
• Smokestack Studios

This deployable synagogue was designed to allow Congregation Beth Sholom of Providence to host services within a shared community social hall. The challenge was to create a meaningfully religious experience for congregants in a mixed-use space that could be transformed from function to function. The user experience and aesthetic goals of the project were determined through extensive facilitated discussions with congregants and prayer leaders with a focus on inclusion.

The final design was inspired by the Tabernacle, a portable place of worship for the Hebrew tribes during their period of wandering. Tent-like fabric elements in wooden frames make the configuration easy to set up and break down. Metal artist Elsa Hoffman collaborated with us on the sanctifying sculptural elements and Smokestack Studios partnered on the woodwork fabrications.