For Le Corbusier, color was not merely a decorative element, but an essential tool for shaping space: “In architecture, color is just as powerful a means as the floor plan and the section. Or rather: polychromy is an integral part of the floor plan and the section themselves.”
Prof. Dr. Axel Buether’s lecture takes up this idea and expands on it using insights from modern perception and color psychology. After all, architecture does not arise solely from floor plans, sections, construction, and materials—it takes shape in our perception. Light and color influence how we experience spatial boundaries, proportions, and distances; how we orient ourselves; and the atmosphere a space creates.
Color thus becomes a dimension of architectural design in its own right. It structures spaces, alters their perceived size and depth, creates a sense of belonging and identity, and influences our emotional experience as well as our behavior. Using examples from architecture, interior design, and healthcare facilities, Axel Buether demonstrates how this potential can be harnessed today in a targeted, evidence-based manner—beyond purely subjective matters of taste.
This lecture offers a new perspective on a dimension of design whose impact is ubiquitous yet is often underestimated in the architectural design process: Those who design architecture shape perception—and, in doing so, always shape color as well.
AIV Frankfurt Summer Festival 2026 – “Join Us in Building the Spaces of Tomorrow”
August 13, 2026 | Lufthansa Group Hangar One, Frankfurt am Main
7:00 p.m. | Keynote by Prof. Dr. Axel Buether: “Color as a Dimension of Architecture”
