Spyscape, a new museum of espionage by David Adjaye, opens in New York

An interactive museum dedicated to the art of spycraft, designed by the studio of British architect David Adjaye, opens in New York this weekend – “empowering visitors to seek the truth, form their own opinions and question everything.”

The museum has been developed in collaboration with investigative journalists, former directors of intelligence agencies and station chiefs. Photography by Scott Frances. Image courtesy of SPYSCAPE

The interactive Spyscape museum occupies a renovated 5,574 sqm is located on the first three levels of a Midtown Manhattan’s 928 8th Avenue, - on West 55th Street, just two blocks west of the MoMA. Adjaye Associates’ Spyscape is part museum and part interactive funhouse, showcasing the espionage world’s stories, tools and characters and offering visitor challenges that range from surveillance skills to special ops training.

Adjaye's firm, which has designed the architecture project, the exhibition and even the fixture of Spyscape, worked closely with advisors like museum officials, former intelligence agency directors, and ex-hackers, creating a complex that immerses you in the mystery, intrigue, smarts, and subterfuge of spying.

Inside, the multi-level museum’s themed exhibition spaces are organized around seven spy-related themes, including surveillance, encryption, deception, hacking and intelligence operations. Spyscape offers a multi-sensory interactive experience.

Adjaye Associates chosed a mix of smoked glass, bespoke fibre cement, grey acoustic paneling, mirror-polished steel and dim lighting for spaces to create a dark and mysterious atmosphere.

Visitors are guided into a 32.5 sqm multimedia briefing elevator – one of the largest in the world – that orients them to the experience before transporting them to the first exhibition level, before players are assigned one of 11 spy roles – including agent handler, cryptologist, hacker, or intelligence analyst. Within each space you meet key characters related to the subject (like Robert Hanson, a notorious mole for the KGB, and Virginia Hall, the one-legged spy who fled the Nazis over the Pyrenees), peruse artifacts (like dominoes with tools hidden inside, spy plane cameras, and code-protecting Enigma Machines from WWII), and take part in a related skill challenge (like lie detection and interrogation practice and the Special Ops laser tunnel, in which you duck and jump over laser beams to prove your dexterity.)

‘It’s a very different take on what a museum is,’ says Adjaye Associates’ Josh Ellman. ‘People are engaged rather than just consuming information passively.’

‘We show how the world of espionage is all around you,’ notes Shelby Prichard, Spyscape’s US chief of staff.

There are also other facilities in the museum as a cafe, a book shop with over 1,000 rare and first-edition spy books, a gift shop filled with spy gadgets, smart technology and multiple event spaces that can host private parties for more than 600 guests.

David Adjaye made a name in the US with the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC, and recently won the Design of the Year 2018 award, now his firm are working on museum designs across the USA.

Photography by Scott Frances. Image courtesy of SPYSCAPE

The interior architecture has been developed by Adjaye to include exhibition spaces, event spaces, offices, a bookstore, and, of course, a spy gift shop. Photography by Scott Frances. Image courtesy of SPYSCAPE

The architecture invites intrigue with cuts between floors, peeks into other galleries, translucent screens and smoked glass windows. Photography by Scott Frances. Image courtesy of SPYSCAPE

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More information

Label

Venue

Text

Spyscape. 928 8th Ave, New York, NY 10019. USA

DAVID ADJAYE

David Adjaye was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1966. The son of a Ghanaian diplomat who has lived in Tanzania, Egypt, Yemen, and Lebanon before moving to Britain at the age of nine, he led a privileged life and was privately educated. He earned his BA at London South Bank University, before graduating with an MA in 1993 from the Royal College of Art. In 1993, the same year of graduation, Adjaye won the RIBA Bronze Medal, a prize offered for RIBA Part 1 projects, normally won by students who have only completed a bachelor's degree.

Previously a unit tutor at the Architectural Association, he was also a lecturer at the Royal College of Art. After very short terms of work with the architectural studios of David Chipperfield (London) and Eduardo Souto de Moura (Porto), Adjaye established a practice with William Russell in 1994 called Adjaye & Russell, based in North London. This office was disbanded in 2000 and Adjaye established his own eponymous studio at this point.

Recent works include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo, and the Skolkovo Moscow School of Management completed in 2010. On April 15, 2009, he was selected in a competition to design the $500 million National Museum of African American History and Culture, part of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., planned to open in 2015. His design features a crown motif from Yoruba sculpture.

Alongside his international commissions, Adjayes work spans exhibitions, private homes, and artist collaborations. He built homes for the designer Alexander McQueen, artist Jake Chapman, photographer Juergen Teller, actor Ewan McGregor, and artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster. For artist Chris Ofili, he designed a new studio and a beach house in Port of Spain. He worked with Ofili to create an environment for the Upper Room, which was later acquired by Tate Britain and caused a nationwide media debate. He also collaborated with artist Olafur Eliasson to create a light installation, Your black horizon, at the 2005 Venice Biennale. He has also worked on the art project Sankalpa with director Shekhar Kapur. Adjaye coauthored two seasons of BBC's Dreamspaces television series and hosts a BBC radio program. In June 2005, he presented the documentary, Building Africa: Architecture of a Continent. In 2008, he participated in Manifesta 7.

In February 2009, the cancellation or postponement of four projects in Europe and Asia forced the firm to enter into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), a deal to stave off insolvency proceedings which prevents financial collapse by rescheduling debts – estimated at about £1m – to creditors.

Adjaye currently holds a Visiting Professor post at Princeton University School of Architecture. He was the first Louis Kahn visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and was the Kenzo Tange Professor in Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design. In addition, he is a RIBA Chartered Member, an AIA Honorary Fellow, a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council. He also serves as member of the Advisory Boards of the Barcelona Institute of Architecture and the London School of Economics Cities programme.

The studio's first solo exhibition: "David Adjaye: Making Public Buildings" was shown at the Whitechapel Gallery in London in January 2006, with Thames and Hudson publishing the catalogue of the same name. This followed their 2005 publication of Adjaye's first book entitled "David Adjaye Houses".

http://www.adjaye.com