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Adjaye Associates has unveiled designs for SPYSCAPE, a new museum and interactive experience that illuminates the world of espionage from historical secret intelligence to modern day hacking through a collection of rare artifacts, exhilarating storytelling and immersive personalized experiences.
Located a stone’s throw from Times Square in New York City, the 60,000-square-foot space will use architecture as a key element of the museum experience. Inspired by the spaces occupied by the world’s most significant spy organizations, the building interiors will resemble a small town, with a variety of spaces unfolding beneath a vaulted canopy. Circulation will lead visitors through a wide range of vantage points and perspectives, playing with perceptions and drawing you into the individual pavilions.
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Varied strategies of lighting, materiality and transparency will reinforce this atmosphere, fostering a sense of discovery and observation – with smoked glass, fiber cement, dark grey acoustic paneling, and both mirror-polished and weathered steel making up the primary material pallette of the interior. This sense of wonder is translated even down into the smallest details, just as the bespoke display cases and large digital lighting canopy.
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“It has been exciting to work with a client as truly innovative as SPYSCAPE,” said Lucy Tilley, Associate Director for Adjaye Associates. “Thanks to their forward-thinking vision, we have been able to challenge the traditional museum typology with a design that creates a new model of visitor experience which straddles the physical and digital worlds. SPYSCAPE will be an utterly unique cultural destination for New York City.”
Other program elements designed for the museum include a cafe, private event halls, temporary exhibition space and a spy book shop containing more than 1,000 rare and antique spy books.
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Playing the dual role of architect and exhibition designer, Adjaye Associates worked closely with the SPYSCAPE team and in collaboration with former members of hacking collectives and directors of intelligence agencies. The museum is set to open in December 2017. Tickets are on sale now, here.
News via Adjaye Associates.
