Responses by Brook Downton, executive producer, MediaMonks

Background: With help from Red Bull Music Academy, The House That Yauch Built was conceived as a tribute to legendary musician, Adam Yauch, as well as a retrospective deep dive into the storied home of the Beastie Boys, and their Oscilloscope Studio. Designed for lovers of music history and culture, the entire concept is a huge archive of memories and moments that occurred during the Beastie Boys’ history and throughout their many adventures and creations—made all the more poignant by the anniversary of Adam’s passing.

Highlights: The site takes its visual theme from the retro-lab aesthetic of Oscilloscope’s brand and expanded it to create an immersive and memorable 360-degree space. We were granted unrestricted access to the offices and studio space, along with all the eclectic and iconic artifacts therein. Each one has a story attached and users can spend hours going through the archive.

Challenges: Getting all the content together. The Oscilloscope team had such a wealth of material to sort through and their intense and concerted efforts meant that the site is a treasure trove of hidden gems. We wanted to find a way to display the stories, artifacts, images and videos in the best way possible, so we came up with a hybrid editorial approach. Now, the vast amount of content could be easily uploaded and displayed in a cohesive and compelling way.

Favorite details: The 360-degree spheres that make up the user experience on the site. Everything was shot, stitched and then finished with a carefully crafted grade to make everything feel like a unique time capsule. This sets the tone of the exploration, and along with the incredible depth of content, makes users want to explore every corner and curiosity.

Navigational structure: The navigation started with the office and studio floor plan; we wanted to let users walk around the space and also be able to jump from room to room, to find and view as much of the content as they could. It was nice to build a site that mirrored a real physical space we had visited and were in total awe of.