SPOOK Dead Room by Clap Studio transforms Valencia techno landmark
Inside SPOOK, one of Valencia’s defining techno clubs, Clap Studio has designed a room where sound becomes the organizing force of the interior. Named Dead Room after the acoustic term for a space with total sound absorption, the project transforms a room inside the historic club with concrete pyramids, polyurethane foam, aluminium and salvaged speakers. The intervention connects SPOOK’s legacy within the Ruta del Bakalao to a new architectural language built around listening, movement and memory.
SPOOK emerged in the 1980s as part of the Ruta del Bakalao, the Valencian club circuit that helped position the region as one of Europe’s underground dance music centres. Unlike many venues from that period, the club has remained active across decades, preserving its identity while continuing to operate as a reference point for techno in Valencia. Clap Studio approaches this history not through nostalgia, but through a spatial intervention that turns sound into the primary material of the room.
The project is built around the concept of the “Dead Room,” a term taken from acoustic engineering that describes a space designed for maximum sound absorption. Clap Studio translates this principle into a dancefloor interior, bringing the precision of a recording environment into a club setting. Walls, ceiling and pillars are covered with pyramidal forms inspired by acoustic absorption panels, creating a room where architecture supports the listening experience rather than simply framing it.
Material contrast defines how the system works. The surfaces closest to the crowd are clad in rigid pyramids finished in dark grey concrete, giving the room a dense and tactile presence. Across the ceiling and sections of the pillars, the pyramids are made from polyurethane foam, a genuine acoustic material chosen for its sonic performance. Four pillars organize the dancefloor, while the DJ booth occupies the centre of one side, acting as the spatial and musical axis of the room.
The bar introduces a different rhythm into the interior. Designed as a curved wall made from aluminium slats at varying heights, it produces a faceted surface that catches and redistributes moving light. Opposite, a sofa and pouf designed by Clap Studio are upholstered in denim fabric scraps, directly referencing the 1980s and the generations who danced at SPOOK. The stitched fragments turn discarded clothing into a social archive, suggesting the bodies, nights and histories accumulated by the club over time.
Colour is used with restraint. Salvaged speakers have been lacquered in pale blue, the only chromatic accent in the otherwise austere room. The same blue reappears inside the bar and the DJ booth, adding a younger register to the concrete, aluminium and acoustic foam surfaces. This controlled palette allows the interior to hold together as a single environment, while giving selected elements a clear visual presence.
Founded in Valencia in 2017 by creative director Jordi Iranzo and technical architect Àngela Montagud, Clap Studio works across interiors, product design and artistic installations. At SPOOK, the studio applies its interest in experiential design to a site already charged with music history. The result is an interior that does not erase the club’s past, but converts it into raw material for a new spatial identity, where acoustic engineering, techno culture and architectural form operate as one system.
Photography by David Zarzoso, with courtesy of Clap Studio
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