Sid Lee Architecture creates the “Ajax Experience” in Amsterdam

The legendary and world-famous Dutch football club, Ajax, is based in Amsterdam. The city and the legendary football club, which has won almost all that there is to be won (Champions' League, UEFA Cup and European Cup winners' cup), are intrinsically related – Ajax is Amsterdam, Amsterdam is Ajax. In 2010, Sid Lee Architecture was chosen by FCA (Football Club Ajax) to create the new brand Ajax Experience, a “museum” experience that praises the epic sports franchise, allowing visitors to discover what has led Ajax to becoming one of the most respected clubs in the history of European and world football.

The Ajax Experience, which is located in the centre of Amsterdam on Rembrandtplein, near Café Oost-Indië (where the club was founded in 1900), is an emotional and engrossing journey that celebrates the legendary sports franchise, immersing the visitor in the philosophy, the culture and and history of the club.

The project is based around the stadium, the core of the journey, in the middle of the museum and its layout leaves the “temporary stands” visible from the whole museum. The exhibition itinerary is designed so that the visitor can experience the development of an athlete to its full. “We wanted to create a strong, personalized, dynamic, graphic identity that would live throughout the experience. We worked on 3 different layers to address various aspects of the clubs history ... we use high contrast black&white and red&white pictures which reproduce the 111 years of history ... quickly showing and visualising the important periods of great Ajax history.”