Protect and Survive, The National Archives
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![Visitors in an exhibition space. In the foreground a woman and child play with a red telephone on a wooden table which has an image projected onto its surface. On one wall is a world map, while in the background visitors look at images on the walls.]()
An immersive experience exploring the Cold War, spies and 80's pop culture.
Protect and Survive: Britain’s Cold War Revealed, The National Archives, 4 April – 9 November 2019, Curated by Mark Dunton and The National Archive, Lighting design by Dha, Photography by Philip Durrant.
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![A child walks past wire-fence doors with a red sign reading “Bunker Entrance.” Red arrows on a white floor indicate the entrance to the exhibition. In the background visitors look at objects on a table.]()
This exhibition marked the 70th anniversary of the formation of NATO and the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The design recalled the late 1970s and early 1980s at the height of the Cold War. One half of the exhibition was conceived as a civil defence bunker telling the story of government planning and preparations for nuclear war. The other half was a domestic setting, focused on daily life and cold war culture.
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![An open folder on a desk with papers marked "Top Secret", a declassified sticker, file number and names of individuals under investigation. In the background are a vintage telephone and desk accessories.]()
We worked with the curatorial team to design authentic-looking maps, nuclear information charts, MI5 spy files and official passes, for an immersive exhibition experience that balanced archival material with new interventions. The exhibition showcased many important original documents including the 1980 Protect and Survive manual, declassified information, political memos, spy confessions, civil defence posters and a letter from Winston Churchill to the Queen.
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![A visitor stands in a dark space looking at two large back-lit line-drawn maps of the British Isles against a gridded blue background. One map is titled “Destruction after an H-bomb attack on London,” the other “Regional Seats of Government 1960”.]()
The Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker in Brentwood Essex was a key inspiration for our designs. During the Cold War, it was maintained as a potential government HQ, and is now open to the public as a museum. We re-created a nuclear fallout map of the British Isles based on materials at Kelvedon, along with set-ups in the exhibition which drew from rooms in the bunker.
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![A woman takes a sticker from a red dispenser. The sticker reads ""Principal Medical Officer"" with a space for visitors to write their name.]()
The design integrated special points of interaction for visitors. At the entrance, visitors "signed in" by filling out a sticker that designated what type of official they were. Other interactive moments included a desk in the bunker where visitors could fill out an official travel pass, an MI5 office where they could sit and leaf through top secret files from the archives, and a typewriter to leave feedback about the exhibition.
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![Two women on a sofa face a TV in an exhibition that looks like a living room with yellow wallpaper. Above the TV are posters for the films Dr Strangelove and From Russia With Love. A bookshelf displays related pop culture paraphernalia.]()
The second half of the exhibition depicts a 1980's living room, including original objects and posters. Pop culture was greatly influenced by the tensions of the times, and this section brought the fears of war into a domestic realm. The television played archival material such as a Panorama episode produced at the time.
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![A large walk-in cupboard under a staircase displaying pantry items on a shelf inside. One door is propped open with a suitcase, the other with an oil cannister. An exhibition text on the door provides more information about the display.]()
We built a staircase with an under-stair cupboard as a display which showcased pantry and domestic supplies for surviving the effects of a nuclear attack.
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![Documents titles "Top Secret" laid down next to grey telephone device, an ashtray on a desk.]()
We commissioned an animated film by artist James Norton that drew from archival material to explore the war games narrative. This was projected on a tabletop in the main exhibition space.
