bureau A: bada bing boardwalk for montreux jazz festival 2013

bureau A: bada bing boardwalk for montreux jazz festival 2013
image © dylan perrenoud

interpreting the montreux jazz festival’s aesthetic of light and glamour, swiss firm bureau A designed a series of glowing neon boardwalks along the water’s edge. located on the eastern end of lake geneva in switzerland, the famous festival has been the place of many legendary jazz and rock concerts. the project’s neon signs reinterpret the character tony soprano’s the ‘bada bing’ night strip-club from the famous HBO series – an expression also used by sonny corleone in the film the godfather.

following a 1980’s logotype aesthetic the installations not only represent the bright lights of the los vegas strip and the nightlife of the jazz clubs in cities like chicago and new york, but also the work of a certain number of important artists working from the 1960’s onwards; such as dan flavin, lucio fontana, bruce nauman, joeph kosuth ou mario merz who took the neon signs out of the jazz clubs and hung them on the walls of art galleries and museums.

illuminated signs supported by a freestanding arch structure capture views of the lake and alps
image © dylan perrenoud

temporarily installed over the water, the boardwalk was reorganized entirely for the festival with a series of new decks, taking advantage of the great scenery. occupying each one of the extruding jetties was a series of generic words: one designated to food for the food court area (pizza, paella, kebab) and another expressing jazz-history based styles: be-bob, latin-jazz, jazz-rock, boogie-woogie, on the lake decks. illuminated typography was supported by a freestanding segmental arch structure – the classical structure used as a framing device is capable of capturing romantic views of the lake and alps.

neon signs reinterpret bright lights on the los vegas strip and nightlife of jazz clubs in cities like chicago and new york
image © dylan perrenoud

occupying each one of the extruding jetties features a series of jazz-history based words
image © dylan perrenoud

the festival is located on the eastern end of lake geneva, it has been the place of many legendary jazz and rock concerts
image © dylan perrenoud

sinage based on artists who took neon signs out of jazz clubs and hung them on the walls of art galleries and museums
image © dylan perrenoud

freestanding arch structures support the neon signs across the festival’s location
image © dylan perrenoud

neon signs reinterpreting the character tony soprano’s the ‘bada bing’ night strip-club from the famous HBO series
image © dylan perrenoud

site plan drawing showing the layout of the extruding decks
image © dylan perrenoud

detail of the site plan showing the layout of the extruding decks
image © dylan perrenoud

aerial view of montreux the location of the famous jazz festival on lake geneva in switzerland
image © dylan perrenoud

original poster for the festival that’s existed since 1967
image © dylan perrenoud

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.