David Bowie’s resolute immersion in the new and the now perhaps made him an unlikely hoarder. Certainly the 90,000-and-counting objects held within the archive at the V&A’s new David Bowie Centre suggest a man who was loathe to chuck anything in the bin, especially if it related to his creative processes and practices. Not great for any removal teams, but absolute catnip for Bowie fans and scholars everywhere.

V&A East Storehouse curator Madeleine Haddon, who describes the scale of the archive as “endlessly astonishing”, explains that a Bowie-esque sense of inclusivity and accessibility lies at the heart of the Centre, which offers both an exhibition space and a cultural hub and facility that allows visitors to pre-book any item they wish to see up close. The Order an Object concept has already proved a success within the wider environs of the Storehouse, home to the V&A’s art, design, theatre and performance archives.

“Something that’s really important to me throughout this journey is showing the capacity of the archives and not making them feel like places that are tucked away or forbidden,” Haddon says. “That’s the ethos of V&A East Storehouse as a whole; that you don’t need any credentials to access collections, that they’re for everyone, for people to come with their own personal questions that they want to explore. This is an archive like you’ve never experienced before, and I hope it really shows how archives can continue to evolve.”

Haddon and her team are still working their way through all the Bowie material. There’s so much here already, from early family mementoes capturing a suburban south London childhood, to stage costumes and other pieces (photographs, set designs, musical instruments) that will be instantly recognisable to anyone with a passing interest in post-war British pop culture.

While it’s intriguing to think that more secrets and creative ideas are yet be revealed, one particular Rosebud item is a framed photograph of Little Richard, apparently pasted by a pre-teen Bowie over a family portrait (all deliciously Freudian). The celebrated US singer was a constant reference point over the following decades: when Bowie approached Nile Rodgers in 1982, ahead of recording the Let’s Dance album, he showed the Chic co-founder and producer a photograph of Little Richard in a Cadillac and told him he wanted his next record to share the same energy and spirit.

Something that’s really important is showing the capacity of the archives and not making them feel like places that are tucked away or forbidden. They’re for everyone

Rodgers is one of two initial guest curators that have chosen artefacts from the archive that will feature in special displays. The other is the indie rock band The Last Dinner Party, a choice, Maddon explains, that shows how Bowie’s influence crosses demographic boundaries. “We wanted to facilitate a multi-generational dialogue and show how he has remained such an active conversation in contemporary culture. The guest curators are central to the vision of the David Bowie Centre, and Storehouse as a whole.”

Former Bowie collaborators, young creatives, scholars and researchers will be invited to bring further perspectives on the archive material. “We are so excited to see how that will continue to reverberate through having access to David Bowie’s archive. It seems so contrary to what you expect from a museum. And we really want to change those expectations.”

There is a permanent display of roughly 200 objects that have been selected from the overall 90,000. These work as an overview of the archive, organised into various themes exploring creative processes, collaborations, personas, as well as Bowie’s fascination with futurism and science fiction and his legacy.

There’s also a collection of ‘box sets’, featuring reproductions of 2D material from the archive; plus pages from notebooks, sketches etc, themed around specific projects and points in the singer’s career. From leafing through the collection of facsimiles, the hope is that the idea of a study centre will be increasingly demystified and that people will become comfortable with the idea of requesting the real material elsewhere within the archive.

“When you first walk in, there’s a large glass wall through which you can see directly into the study room,” Haddon says. “It was really important to us to have that transparency from the minute that you walk into the space, that people understand what’s taking place in there and that it feels like a space for everyone, because we really hope that everyone will in their own time request to view the archives and take their own journey.”

The Centre was designed by the London-based studio IDK. Co-directors Mike Lim and James Pockson are both quick to acknowledge the support of the V&A throughout the whole creative process, with the various curators and archivists on board with the project from the earliest stages. “On the one hand there’s an amazing, very narrative exploration with a cultural discourse and then on the other there’s a technical, services, fire doors, element to it,” says Lim. “Having that commitment from the V&A has made it really enjoyable.”

The core challenge was retrofitting an existing building and creating a space that can provide a balance between the needs of an archive and the expectations of a displayed collection. To that end, the IDK team designed an infrastructure of integrated parts, one that is easy to install, rotate and modify.

Bowie didn’t embed and entrench himself into one genre, he was willing to adapt and be fluid. And as a young creative, that’s incredibly attractive

“There’s this material efficiency to both the stage and this kind of structural archive,” Pockson explains. “And we brought those two together, stories and stagecraft, to create this part-infrastructure, part-Bowie dream machine.”

The need to display an object that could be as small as a pair of sunglasses or as large as a stage set was met with a system of mesh panels on sliders that sits within an adjustable storage unit that can then bring the various pieces closer to the viewer, whatever the size. Lighting plays a huge role, adding performance aspects to the archive and allowing it to blend in with the rest of the space without feeling too jarring. “It just got a bit Bowie-d,” says Lim. “Which is where the fun is.”

Bowie’s love of reinvention was one core influence, as was his use of stagecraft and theatrical elements in his live performances. Pockson singles out the fabled Diamond Dogs 1974 North American tour, with its references to Shakespeare, Broadway theatre, George Orwell and the chiaroscuro drama of decaying urban landscapes.

“With someone like Bowie, it’s endless,” says Lim. “Hopefully the archive is there to inspire people to feel free and explore and discover new practise. And I think that’s what was so special about Bowie, he didn’t embed and entrench himself into one genre, he was willing to adapt and be fluid. And as a young creative, that’s incredibly attractive. To keep exploring, keep trying to find new things.”

The V&A’s outreach work with east London community group Elevate Youth Voice introduced the singer to a local audience. And, while some of the young people involved had reportedly never heard of Bowie, they quickly understood and appreciated the value of his work and his continued relevance. “They were completely enthralled once they had a chance to learn about his creative freedom, his constant reinvention, his multidisciplinary practise and how he didn’t let his practise be contained within a singular genre,” says Haddon.

Possibly the most intriguing aspect of the archive is the various unrealised projects that Bowie was forced to set aside for various reasons. Haddon mentions film treaties for both Diamond Dogs (which famously hit the buffers after Sonia Orwell denied him the film rights to 1984) and for Young Americans. There are also detailed plans for The Leon Suites album, recorded with Brian Eno in 1994 and rejected by his record label for being too uncommercial. As well as the music, there were various narratives and character arcs built around storylines involving art crimes (many of which eventually fed through to his Outside album the following year) and proposals for an accompanying concert to take place in India.

“With an archive, you have this incredibly unique opportunity to look at process,” Haddon says. “Bowie saved every draft, sketch and unfinished idea, reminding us that creative genius and brilliance has messy starts, and it does not immediately come out perfectly, that trial and error is involved in creating incredible art.

“The archive really speaks to that, it reminds you to stay curious and take risks and to not be afraid of failure, it reminds you that every great artist encountered so much failure and rejection and pivots. Even David Bowie.”

The David Bowie Centre opens at V&A East Storehouse in London on September 13; vam.ac.uk/east/storehouse