Clap Studio signs the interior design of one of the rooms at SPOOK, one of the most iconic clubs in Valencia and a landmark of Spain's electronic music scene. Born in the 1980s as part of the Ruta del Bakalao — the legendary club circuit that made Valencia one of Europe's underground dance music epicentres — SPOOK has remained active for decades as one of the few spaces to have kept its identity intact, cementing its place today as a temple of techno in the city.
For this project, Clap Studio builds around a single concept: Dead Room. The term, borrowed from acoustic engineering, defines a space with total sound absorption, the most technically precise environment for listening to music. That principle becomes the backbone of the design: bringing the logic of the recording studio into a dancefloor space, making the architecture work in service of the sound.
Walls, ceiling and pillars are clad in pyramids inspired by the acoustic absorption panels used in professional recording studios. The surfaces closest to the crowd are rigid pyramids finished in dark grey concrete. On the ceiling and parts of the pillars, the pyramids are made from polyurethane foam, a real acoustic material that gives the room an exceptional sonic response. Four pillars frame the dancefloor. The DJ booth sits at the centre of one side, as the axis of the entire space.
The bar is one of the most distinctive elements of the project, a curved wall resolved through aluminium slats at varying heights. This faceted surface captures and redistributes light in motion. On the opposite side, a sofa and a pouf designed by Clap Studio. Two pieces upholstered in denim fabric scraps, a direct nod to the 1980s, to the people who danced in SPOOK. Those fragments of clothing stitched together to form a seat are, in a way, a portrait of everything SPOOK has accumulated: bodies, nights, history.
The speakers have been salvaged and lacquered in pale blue, the only touch of colour in the entire room. That same blue appears inside the bar and in the booth, acting as a young accent within a consciously austere space. A room that does not turn its back on its past, but turns it into raw material to build something new.
