Clap Studio renovates El Cubo room at Spook nightclub in Valencia

Spanish architecture firm Clap Studio has renovated the El Cubo room at Spook, a historic nightclub in Valencia, Spain, that was a key venue in the 1980s Ruta del Bakalao club circuit. The design is based on the concept of a 'dead room'—an acoustically isolated space typically found in professional recording studios—to create what the studio calls 'the most music-respectful room.' The 140-square-meter space features walls, ceiling, and pillars clad in pyramid-shaped acoustic panels, with rigid porous plaster pyramids within reach of patrons and real acoustic foam on the ceiling and upper walls. A vinyl floor surrounds a central dancefloor, with a lacquered-wood DJ booth and a curved bar made of vertical wood and steel panels finished in stainless steel. An adjacent curved wall has aluminum slats at varying heights for dynamic lighting. Bespoke seating includes a sofa and pouf upholstered in reclaimed denim, referencing Spook's counterculture history. Original speakers from the club's heyday remain in the corners. A blue accent runs through plaster, lighting, and seating, evoking Spook's 'sober, dark, techno' identity. Technical architect Àngela Montagud explained that the design borrows from recording studio language to intensify the dance experience, emphasizing that the architecture should not compete with the music. The renovation follows Clap Studio's earlier project for sister club Oven.