14 September 2026 | Lead photo via Frederik Gustav/Instagram
The reflective aluminium installation appeared at O Days Festival in Copenhagen this summer, transforming the visual language of speaker stacks through light and structure
Copenhagen-based design studio Frederik Gustav has created ‘Speaker’, a site-specific installation that translates the visual language of sound systems into a curved wall of reflective aluminium for O Days Festival in Copenhagen.
Created by designers Frederik Weber and Gustav Dupont, the installation is composed of repeating aluminium square panels, each marked by a radial, circular-brushed finish. Arranged across a sweeping curved structure, the panels catch and distort ambient light as conditions change, producing shifting reflections that respond to daylight, movement and the position of people passing through the festival site.
The repeated circular patterns subtly evoke the cones of large-scale loudspeakers, connecting the work to the sound infrastructure that surrounds it without functioning as an acoustic system itself. Mounted on an exposed steel truss framework, ‘Speaker’ places the mathematically precise surfaces of its aluminium panels against a construction language more commonly associated with temporary stages, lighting rigs and festival scaffolding.
As viewers move around the installation, changes in perspective alter the intensity and direction of its reflections. At different points, the aluminium captures fragments of the surrounding environment and the people within it, making the festival itself part of the work’s continually changing surface.
The project was developed for O Days, a three-day Copenhagen festival founded by Danish craft brewery ÅBEN and held at Refshaleøen, the former industrial area that has become one of the city’s major cultural destinations. Founded in 2017, ÅBEN has expanded beyond brewing into music and cultural programming, including the creation of O Days. The festival brings together international and local artists and DJs alongside food, craft beer, design and site-specific installations, with ÅBEN continuing as its founding partner and Live Nation involved in its music programming.
Design has increasingly formed part of O Days’ wider identity rather than operating simply as decoration around its music programme. The festival runs O/Create, an initiative inviting emerging creatives to develop site-specific pavilions and installations for its grounds, while its own description places art, design and communal experience alongside music as central parts of the event.
‘Speaker’ also reflects Frederik Gustav’s broader approach to making. Working from its studio on Copenhagen’s Amager island, the duo moves between design, architecture, art and craftsmanship, frequently leaving structural systems, joints and fabrication methods visible rather than concealing them. Material experimentation and exposed construction recur throughout the studio’s work, allowing the processes behind an object to become part of its final visual language.
Speaking about their wider creative practice in a 2025 interview with Studio Mercado, Frederik Gustav described experimentation and materiality as central to their approach. “We like to explore directly through building and let the process guide us, often discovering ideas along the way rather than planning everything in advance,” the duo said. They also emphasised the role of exposed construction in their work, explaining, “By keeping the structures visible, the way something is made becomes part of its expression.” Material choices, meanwhile, often precede the form of a project rather than follow it. “The physical properties of a material are usually the starting point, and this is where the process begins,” they added.
Browse Instagram for more views of ‘Speaker’ at O Days Festival below.
