Teenage Dreams exhibition at the DAC–Danish Architecture – All photos by DAC.

Design–The DAC–Danish Architecture Center in Copenhagen presents the Teenage Dreams exhibition, exploring how digitisation, sustainability, mental health, and social media affect and transform teens’ lives and personal spaces. Developed by the DAC, Teenage Dreams was inaugurated during 3 Days of Design and will be open until January 5, 2025.

• RELATED STORIES: Read more about 3 Days of Design on Archipanic.

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“It is important to consider how their physical surroundings can reflect their dreams about the massive changes they are faced with,” explains DAC senior curator Pernille Stockmarr.

The exhibition focuses on the bedroom, a safe space where teenagers can get a good night’s sleep and be themselves. “Here, they do their homework, recharge their batteries, and relax. However, their room also provides the technological setting for their communication, social interaction, and identity formation online.”

Three young Danish creatives have created installations that do not exactly represent what the teenage bedroom will look like in the future; rather, they offer a vision of this universe in which wishes and behaviour, nature and technology, merge in different ways.

Activist fashion brand Our Shift set up a cosy nook made from discarded festival tents where you can recharge your soul and phone. “Much like in most teenage rooms, there’s clothing everywhere. For us, it’s also a way to showcase how much clothing is wasted. We demonstrate this by building a landscape of clothing piles that visitors can lounge on.”

Krøyer-Sætter-Lassen has created a selfie zone where the border between the private and public spheres is dissolved. “Our installation addresses the current trends and challenges faced by young people. It does so by examining how their immersion in digital media and social networks affects their perception of public and private spaces.”

Natural Material Studio created a bedroom using new biogenetic materials. The semi-transparent bio-textiles and the cast bed of bio-based foam create a transformative space where the boundaries between inside and outside, dream and reality, are blurred. “We are inspired by a fluid understanding of the world, where materials are in flux, and where we cultivate the impermanent.”

Teenage Dreams includes the photography project Still Life of Teenagers, a collection of snapshot images of contemporary teenage bedrooms taken by the photographer and sociologist Barbara Marstrand. The photos serve as a bridge between the futuristic installations and the present. The exhibition also features short videos where teenagers share their wishes about their surroundings and bedrooms.

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