Georges Zigrand Design Consultancy

We were asked by the Philharmonie Luxembourg to rethink and overhaul the existing signage of this amazing building, designed by architect Christian de Portzamparc and inaugurated in 2005. The process of designing a coherent signage scheme in this complex building, which has almost no straight walls ( if there were any walls at all ) and no level floors, was one of our biggest design challenges so far. In fact, the angled asymmetrical walls, slopes, tunnels, towers and a circular circuit made our heads spin more than once. In close collaboration with the Philharmonie team, it took a year of structuring a new hierarchy, changing denominations, testing mock-ups, trials & errors, to develop a new concept.

The new design scheme had to find numerous specific three dimensional support solutions in order to have a minimal impact on the architecture and integrate into the very specific formal language of the building. Throughout the design development we followed our initial intention of trying to be as subtle as possible, yet at the same time, to be clearly visible and confident where required. Ultimately we arrived at an overall scheme that feels like it has always been part of the building, intuitive for the visitor and in accord with the architecture.

Client: Philharmonie Luxembourg
Graphics: Laurent Daubach / Designbureau

All photos © Philharmonie Luxembourg / Inês Rebelo de Andrade