About the book
How does the encounter between psychology and architecture take place during the design and planning process? At what stage of planning does knowledge of architectural psychology become relevant and applicable? What insights does urban architectural psychology provide for the urban planning discourse? In this book, renowned experts from Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland from the disciplines of architecture, psychology, urban planning, color design and communication psychology contribute their pioneering knowledge.
Color as a design tool:
The design of the effects of light and surface colors in relation to the experience and behavior of people in the built space
Le Corbusier, probably the most influential architect of modernism, says in his Polychromie Architecturale about the importance of color for the design process: “In architecture, color is just as powerful a means as the floor plan and the section. Or rather: polychromy, a component of the ground plan and the section itself.” (Le Corbusier, 2015).
This statement seems almost paradoxical today, on the one hand because modernism differs from the building culture of the past precisely because of the absence of a locally, functionally and contextually differentiated color design. On the other hand, because contemporary design doctrines lack an examination of the diverse effects of light and body colors on the perception of architecture, such as the experience and behavior of its users.
A few years ago, when I published the standard work “Color. Entwurfsgrundlagen – Planungsstrategien – visuelle Kommunikation” a few years ago, it took me a lot of research time to find current practical examples in Europe where color was not a superficial colorfulness, but an essential design tool. There is still no contemporary, scientifically sound theory on the use of color as a design tool (Buether, 2014). So I would like to start here.
Table of contents
- Color is a holistic phenomenon – an attempt to clarify the term
- As a design tool, color follows the content function exclusively
- The function of color in nature and culture
- Dialogic introspection – perceiving and understanding
- On the use of color as a design tool
- Methodology for integrating color in the design process
Order book as eBook or print edition here: Link to Springer Verlag
