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Backstage: How Danish architecture is made

Exhibition

Apr 21 - Oct 3, 2021

Backstage in 2021 offered a look behind everyday architecture through cases, 1:1 installations, models, films and interactive elements—showing the choices, values and consequences behind what we see on the surface.

You encounter architecture every single day. But did you realize that architecture creates the framework for how you live your life – and live life together with others? We often know the facade, but not the story behind it.

The Danes have an innate belief that they can always do things a little better, and that rubs off on Danish architecture. What’s at stake when we build the walls we all live within? What forces drive the development, what mistakes do we make along the way, and how do we rectify them?

This exhibition brought you “behind the facade” of some of the architecture that surrounds us in Denmark. It touched upon issues that occupy us, but that also divide us.

In the exhibition you could discover the tools that Danish architects, designers and urban planners use to shape the world around us. You could learn more about the process of creating architecture, and what thoughts go into the facades that we end up looking at.

Explore the exhibition

  • Explore the set pieces

    The exhibition took the form of a fascinating theatrical stage, with different sets, scenes and stories that could be viewed independently, but which together told a full story. Through numerous cases, photographs, 1:1 installations, architectural models, films and interactive elements, Backstage depicted what it is that makes Danish architecture stand out, and what it means to you and me.

    Photo: Rasmus Hjortshøj
  • Light, light and light

    Danish architects have a proud tradition of incorporating daylight and inflow of light into the construction of homes, schools, and public buildings, but also into the way we live. How does daylight affect our well-being? Is daylight a human right? And is function and aesthetic equally important?

    Photo: Rasmus Hjortshøj
  • You could try out our VR​

    In the exhibitions you could get inspired by Bjarke Ingels’ creative universe and draw your own 3D architecture in our VR installation.

    Photo: Rasmus Hjortshøj

This is why you need to know Jan Gehl

Photo: Sandra Henningsson

Jan Gehl’s study

Meet the Danish architect and urban planner Jan Gehl, whose work has garnered international recognition and left a huge imprint on the way we think about urban planning – also abroad, where his book “Life between buildings” has been translated into 40 languages.

In the exhibition, you could explore his study, look in private notebooks, hear Jan talk and see what underlied the exciting studies that have, for example, provided bike paths in Moscow and car-free zone in Times Square in New York.

​Conversation starters

You could find small conversation starters in the exhibition that encouraged us all to stop and talk to each other about the architecture that surrounded us.

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What was Backstage?

Backstage was an exhibition at DAC that looked behind everyday architecture and showed how the built environment shapes how we live and live together.

When did Backstage take place?

The exhibition ran from 21 Apr to 3 Oct 2021.

How was the exhibition structured?

The exhibition was staged like a theatre set with scenographies, chapters and stories that can be experienced independently while forming one overall narrative.

What kinds of formats were included?

Cases, images, 1:1 installations, architectural models, films and interactive elements.

Which specific experiences are mentioned?

A VR installation for drawing 3D architecture, a section on light in architecture, and Jan Gehl’s workspace with notebooks and stories.

What should I know if I only read one thing?

Backstage (21 Apr–3 Oct 2021) made architectural processes and choices visible through scenography, 1:1 installations, VR and stories such as Jan Gehl’s workspace.

This exhibition is developed by Danish Architecture Center

Thank you to Tinker Imagineers for the collaboration on the concept development.

Special thanks to Jan Gehl and Ingrid Gehl.

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