A collaborative project with Matthew Henry, Fiona McKenzie & Clare Green
Brief
Design materials for an exciting upcoming exhibition about the USSR's 'Chief Designer', Sergei P. Korolev. The exhibition will be based at the Science Museum London.
Solution
Sergei Korolev was a crucial influence in Soviet Space Programme during the Cold War. For this reason his identity was kept a state secret until his death in 1966. We decided that our solution would challenge this secrecy and concealment to uncover Korolev and his achievement to the masses.
The use of a bunker aesthetic was a concept that we thought encapsulated the ethos of the time period as well as conveying the sense of concealment and anonymity that Korolev was forcefully subjected to. The bunker allowed us to add another dimension to the exhibit's experience with the use of lighting and heating as well as ascents and descents. For example, you are plunged into the cold darkness almost immediately as you learn of Korolev's incarceration in a Siberian gulag but conclude in an expansive chamber filled with warmth and white light, having ascended from the depths of the bunker.
The use of a bunker aesthetic was a concept that we thought encapsulated the ethos of the time period as well as conveying the sense of concealment and anonymity that Korolev was forcefully subjected to. The bunker allowed us to add another dimension to the exhibit's experience with the use of lighting and heating as well as ascents and descents. For example, you are plunged into the cold darkness almost immediately as you learn of Korolev's incarceration in a Siberian gulag but conclude in an expansive chamber filled with warmth and white light, having ascended from the depths of the bunker.
