Culinary studio Menu Extra and local interior design studio Atelier Zébulon Perron have created a temporary bar outfitted with a custom chandelier for festival-goers at Montreal Design Week.
A collaboration between Menu Extra, which puts on dinners in famous architectural locations, and local designers, Bar Extra was created in a storefront in Montreal’s trendy Mile End neighbourhood.
“For Montreal’s first design week, we set out to transform our ghost kitchen into a rendez-vous for the creative community,” Menu Extra creative director Samuel de La Courtemanche told Dezeen.
“The idea was to create a space where people could gather organically. A place to linger over a drink, exchange ideas, unwind, and connect.”
Bar Extra was a social hub during Montreal Design Week. Top photo by Alex Lesage
Atelier Zébulon Perron brought a colourful, high-contrast treatment to the space, which featured garage-style windows facing the street where a small front room was separated by curtains from the back-of-house functions.
The walls were painted a dark teal, while the carpets were purple. Mirrors on each side of the space were embossed with wordmarks and menu items, with graphic design by Martha.
At the centre of the space was a circular wooden bar where drinks were made. Above the bar was a massive chandelier that was created by the studio and local lighting design studio Lambert & Fils.
The walls were painted a deep teal while the carpets were purple
The light was designed to be futuristic with mirrors, recycled from vintage mirrored cabinets, facing outwards and bands of lights running vertically down toward the bar.
This celestial chandelier was supported by a massive steel structure installed by Modulor. It sat within the walls and ceiling, foregrounding the ephemerality of the installation and Montreal’s industrial grit.
Cleverly, the crossbeams closer to the ground were used to support small ledges for drinks and food.
The bar was open during the design week
Zébulon Perron, founder of his eponymous studio, told Dezeen the space was meant to act as a “UFO” landing on the strip for just a few days.
To imbue the space with an otherworldly sense, the chandelier lights flashed, and smoke machines ran during the event.
“I wanted the installation to have a presence like it was alive,” added Perron.
It was built in the test kitchen of the design-oriented food series Menu Extra
A banquette was installed under the garage-style window, which was left open for most of the event. Tables with white tablecloths sat in front of the banquette, with metal seating.
For the food, developed by Menu Extra executive chef Francis Blais, small bites were served on anodised aluminium trays designed by local designer Jacob Thompson Boyd.
The custom trays were a take on the classic lunch tray, with a futuristic, streamlined twist.
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“We developed a visual language that draws from Montréal institutions of the 1980s, layered with a retro-futuristic edge,” said De La Courtemanche.
“The result is a space that feels both grounded and slightly out of time, with a bold chromatic palette enveloping the space and servers in white jackets and black ties balancing martinis on silver trays.”
It occupied a storefront with a garage-style window in Montreal’s Mile End neighbourhood
The reuse elements track with other key events during the inaugural Montreal Design Week, including an exhibition that featured furniture made from the recycled roof of the Montreal Olympic Stadium.
Temporary exhibitions revolving around hospitality have become popular at recent design weeks.
Last year, we took a look at different food-and-drink-oriented exhibitions during New York’s design week.
The photography is by Aidan Matthews unless otherwise stated.
Bar Extra ran from 1 to 3 May during Montreal Design Week. For more exhibitions and activations in architecture and design visit Dezeen Events Guide.