From crafting a sampler that plays only Gregorian chants to designing a modular PC chassis with retro-futuristic flair, Teenage Engineering has long excelled at blending whimsy with precision. Its creations, whether a child-friendly vinyl turntable or a sound engineer’s dream laptop, are less about convention and more about a playful and tactile experience. Now, the Stockholm-based brand brings that same spirit of experimentation to a new collaboration that’s as evocative as it is unexpected.
Dubbed BGN 11, this latest endeavor transforms a row of ten vintage tin dollhouses into bespoke audio sculptures, each housing a working TE OD-11 speaker within its hand-altered walls. Partnering with Toronto-based craft collective Bentgablenits and powered by Shopify’s creative space in Soho, New York, the installation reimagines mid-century Americana through the lens of sound, memory, and technology.
Designer: Teenage Engineering and Bentgablenits
The structures themselves (salvaged 1930s pressed-metal toys) are no longer playsets but sonic vessels. Each house is rewired, reupholstered, and reanimated to represent different domestic or communal settings: a chapel, a living room, an ice cream parlor, or a corner shop. Rather than being static objects, they’re functional speakers, each one broadcasting ambient compositions tailored to its theme. One might emit the murmur of a congregation, another the distant chime of a store bell, all composed to match the atmosphere of these tiny vignettes.
This installation is more than a visual oddity; it’s a cultural dialogue. Bentgablenits’ hand-finished details and weathered touches speak to their reverence for aged objects, while Teenage Engineering’s refined acoustics and hardware infuse each dollhouse with a modern heartbeat. Together, they create objects that are both nostalgic and futuristic – artifacts of an imagined suburbia where craft and code coexist.
The team behind Bentgablenits, Brenda Bent, Karen Gable, and Angelo Nitsopoulos, conceived the concept while pondering a home for the speaker. The idea of housing it within an actual house quickly turned literal, and then wonderfully surreal. Working closely with Teenage Engineering, the team found surprising alignment in their differing approaches: one driven by tactile imperfection, the other by technological precision. Yet both, as they note, “pour their hearts into the products.”
Visitors can explore this suburban soundscape at 131 Greene Street from June 27, with a three-day public event anchoring the launch. In addition to the speaker-dollhouses, the space includes collectible Bentgablenits-crafted merchandise, like beaded vintage tees and studio bags for TE’s OB-4 speakers, alongside other curated accessories. With just 10 handcrafted units available, these dollhouse speakers won’t stay on the shelf for long—BGN 11 drops tomorrow.
BGN 11 doesn’t just showcase audio innovation or nostalgic design—it merges the two to make something hauntingly beautiful. It offers a moment of reflection in a world of overstimulation, reminding us that speakers don’t have to be invisible. They can be poetic. They can be absurd. And when the right hands touch the right tools, they can become miniature monuments to time, sound, and storytelling.
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