Copenhagen’s new metro station looks like it has been hit by a train moving at the speed of light. Havneholmen Metro Station, which opened in 2024, has benches hanging from the ceiling, trash cans jutting sideways from walls, and information screens tilted at odd angles. The effect is not a mistake. It is art.
The Danish artist group Superflex designed the space as a simulation of what happens when everything moves that fast. At the speed of light, the artists reasoned, gravity and the shape of the room itself would shift. That logic carries over to the benches, signs, and clocks, which appear to have wandered off course.
What Superflex Did
Superflex approached the project with unusual freedom. According to one Superflex member, the metro operator told them to “just go for it.” In some places, the client turned out to be wilder than the artists themselves.
The distortions are not just for show. They are placed alongside working versions of the same fixtures in their usual locations. Passengers can still check the time and see when the next train arrives, even as clocks, signs, and benches seem to have gone off course.
The Speed-of-Light Effect
The core idea is simple to explain but strange to experience. Superflex took the principle that gravity and the room’s shape would shift at the speed of light and applied it to the station’s physical objects.
The result is a space that feels like it is falling apart while it stays perfectly functional. Benches hang from the ceiling instead of resting on the floor. A trash can juts sideways from a wall. Information screens tilt out at odd angles. Clocks run on their own schedules.
Why It Works
The station’s designers made a practical choice. Instead of building purely decorative mock-ups, they placed the distorted versions alongside fully functional originals. So a passenger can sit on a bench that looks like it is floating while reading a sign that tells them exactly when the next train arrives.
That combination keeps the illusion from breaking down into useless decoration.
The Artist Group Behind It
For this project, Superflex worked closely with the metro operator, who gave them an unusually free hand.
The result is a station that looks like a strange experiment, but one you can actually ride through.
How the Illusion Holds Together
Every fixture is bent in its own way, so the room feels like it is warping around a single axis. The clocks, signs, and benches all appear to be caught in the same gravitational pull.
That consistency is what makes the effect hold together. If a bench hung from the ceiling while a sign sat flat on the wall, the illusion would collapse. As it stands, the station reads as a single, coherent space that has simply been stretched beyond its normal shape.
What Passengers See
Here is what passengers walking through Havneholmen encounter:
- Benches hanging from the ceiling instead of resting on the floor
- A trash can jutting sideways from a wall
- Information screens tilted at odd angles
- Clocks running on their own schedules
- Fully functional original versions in their usual locations
The station is fully operational.
Key Facts
- Station: Havneholmen Metro Station, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Opened: 2024
- Designers: Superflex, a Danish artist group
- Concept: Simulated effects of traveling at the speed of light
- Functionality: Fully operational, with working versions placed alongside the distorted ones
Our View
Havneholmen is a small station with a big idea. It takes a familiar urban space and bends it into something strange, while keeping it fully usable. The design respects the passengers’ need for information, which is why the working versions exist at all.
The result is a station that rewards attention. Passengers who look up from their phones will see something that looks wrong, and then realize it is the station itself that has changed, not their eyes.
It is a rare case where the art actually works better because it does not get in the way.
Source material: “Havneholmen Metro Station in Copenhagen, Denmark,” Atlas Obscura.
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