Jens Nielsen was among the most influential and characterful figures in Danish twentieth century design and architecture. His twenty-year career as Design Director at DSB between 1972 and 1992 enabled him to spread his ideas across the entire nation. His interests in art, music and culture in general led him to commission works from leading artists and sculptures to adorns stations and tracksides, examples of which were collected by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Today, thousands of travellers every day step aboard IC3 trains, the design of which Nielsen oversaw, involving talented engineers, designers such as Nanna Ditzel and artists such as Per Arnoldi. Entirely created and built in Denmark, the popular trains have been a great success. But they were only one of the many aspects of architecture and design for which Nielsen was responsible, ranging from big stations to small details like uniforms, bins and benches.
‘DSB Design: Jens Nielsen og designprogrammet 1972-1992’ explores and analyses Jens Nielsen’s life and career, first at the dansk designråd and then at DSB, are explored. His beliefs that travel is a cultural activity, his desire to create communal spaces of high quality for citizens to gather and meet when travelling and his idea that the public realm should include culturally inclusive, uplifting and educative content remain very relevant today.