Adjaye Associates reveals its design for a new spy museum

Adjaye Associates has revealed its design for Spyscape, a new spy museum. Situated in Midtown Manhattan near MoMA, the museum and interactive experience will lead visitors deep into the heavily-veiled world using a combination of artefacts, storytelling and visitor specific experiences, which, according to Spyspace will let visitors “explore their own spy skills to see how they can be relevant everyday, and even learn what kind of spy they’d be”.

The design for the museum – which spans 60,000 sq feet – uses the architectural language of the world’s most famed spy organisations. The museum was developed with the help of expert advisors, among them hacking collectives and the directors of intelligence agencies.

Adjaye Associates notes that its design flips the anticipated relationship between building and town by housing a small town within an entire building. Exhibition spaces, also designed by the company, are housed in pavilions focused on seven espionage-based themes, which, as Adjaye Associates notes “features a distinctive design and material palette crafted around its unique content".

“It has been exciting to work with a client as truly innovative as Spyspace,” commented 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. Spyspace will be an utterly unique cultural destination for New York City.”