Color strategies in architecture
Architect and philosopher Axel Buether in conversation with Modulor magazine
When do users perceive rooms as pleasant or oppressive?
Buether: We humans are shaped by the fact that the top is always light and the bottom is always darker. This comes from nature, where there is always the sun, the light above. Where the light comes from is crucial for orientation in the room. It is important that we create a clear orientation in the room and work with daylight. This can be additionally supported with colors or the use of artificial light. Normally, lamps are always mounted at the top to support the sensation of orientation. Otherwise, the rooms take on a cave-like character and we tire much more quickly in them.
What are some general tips for using color and light in architecture?
Basically, the brighter the colors in a room, the more activating it is. Darker colors tend to soothe and calm us down. Today, we also know that when the light level in a room goes down, users’ attention levels also drop. This is why there are regulations on minimum lighting levels in public spaces such as schools and educational establishments. You know the situation: the projector is on at the front of a classroom while the pupils doze off in the darkened room. However, it is also important to have an external reference and a certain basic brightness in educational spaces.
What can be achieved with room lighting?
Brightness generates attention, which can be observed beautifully in the theater, for example. The actor who is in the spotlight usually gets the most attention.
What can colors do in a room?
When choosing the color scheme for rooms, it is important to consider the respective use. For example, you go through the important rooms of a building and determine the color scheme according to the type of use of the rooms. This creates orientation and a pleasant stay for the user.
It’s actually less about the absolute color tone and more about its saturation. For example, if I have a room that is painted completely red, then everything else turns red, including people’s skin. Everything in this room is therefore recolored and decolored. This in turn makes orientation more difficult and often gives the wrong signals. It becomes dangerous when I strongly color a room whose use I don’t know exactly.
Would white rooms then be the best solution?
It is a misconception that white is ideal for rooms. Although every use is possible in such a room, this also has disadvantages. Today, hospitals and clinics tend to be designed in colors that make visitors feel comfortable. You don’t have to convince them of the hygiene and cleanliness of the institution with white rooms. White is not neutral but looks hygienic, clean and cool. In children’s wards, for example, it has been shown that children feel very uncomfortable in clinically clean white rooms, which hinders the recovery process. Especially in a weakened state, people need a feeling of home and security that is conveyed by familiar colors in combination with a sensitive surface and lighting design.
What about private or work spaces?
When designing living and working spaces, the question always arises as to how much color people need. Not everyone likes the same colors in the same intensity. You can see this clearly in the clothing. Everyone is a little different. There are cultural differences in the perception of colors. Everyone has their own color home from which they come. As a rule, these are the local colors that surround you for a longer period of time.
In architecture, too, people are increasingly talking about the defining colors of a place.
Exactly, in Zurich, for example, there is currently a study by the House of Color on the colorfulness of the city. They look at which colors occur how often in a place and, for example, do they stand for a certain era of this place. Together with the colors of the sky and the surroundings, this results in a so-called color tone. I once had this examined in Germany and found that even within Germany there are different colors. If you go further north towards Sweden or Finland, for example, you will notice that the local colors are very different from ours.
What does this mean for the color scheme in a city?
Identity, i.e. where I come from, has a lot to do with the colors of the environment in which I grew up. Recognizability always creates identity. I would like the color identity of a place to be respected, perhaps even developed further. It should not be negated and it should not be treated carelessly. If it does not correspond to the purpose of the design, colors that come from completely different cultural backgrounds should be avoided. Diversity can lead to arbitrariness and disorientation if it is not designed with people in mind. Every place, every region has an individuality that distinguishes it and should be preserved and carefully developed as cultural heritage.
What about the color of building materials?
In the past, it was mainly the transportation of building materials that was expensive, not the materials themselves. That’s why people actually always used raw materials for building that were easy to get hold of or available locally. Over the centuries, a local color scheme has developed in the cultural sector from the available building materials and colors. In India, for example, there are many more dyes in nature. So it is not surprising that there is also a much greater colorfulness here. So for a person from India, very colorful houses can seem much more familiar than for a Northern European.
But special houses could already be different colors?
Even in the past, a lot of money was spent on outstanding buildings such as churches and palaces. This also means that other color pigments could be purchased, which then make the buildings look different. These houses then also indicated in the hierarchy of the city that they were something special. If you suddenly use these colors everywhere, things get mixed up. This is comparable to the height development of a city skyline. Outstanding buildings such as the town hall or the seat of government have always been allowed to stand out. If everyone suddenly does this, the result is a wild mess. One thing must be noted: The fact that almost all colors are available everywhere today means that the hierarchy of buildings based on color no longer works in a city.
Do architects learn too little about color during their training?
In the past, the study of color was very important in training. With the advent of modernism and white buildings, however, its importance in education declined. My thesis is that the use of color as a design medium ceased the moment it was identified as an ornament and “thrown overboard” with other things.
When did this break occur?
In modern times, no distinction was made between color and form; they were linked. No form decision was made without considering what color and exposure the object should have. That got lost at some point. I know this mainly from German architecture schools. The design is made first and then you think about what color would be suitable. It would also be my plea to think about what color scheme and lighting the rooms should have early on in the design stage.
What should architects use as a guide for the color scheme of their buildings?
I always recommend using the local colors as a guide. Just as one examines the evolved formal language of an environment, one should know the evolved colorfulness of a building site. Then you can consider moving forward carefully with the color scheme or reflecting on the existing colors. In any case, a designer should be very aware of the effects of colors in space, which can convey orientation and identity as well as breaks and disruptions in the cityscape.
Which architect used color in an exemplary way?
In early modernism, Taut built industrially and economically and created individuality and orientation through the use of color. He tried to combine the principle of modern, standardized construction with people’s demand for individuality and orientation. So all this already existed in early modernism and was lost to some extent in post-war modernism. In my opinion, however, there has recently been a return to the potential of color as a design tool. Herzog & de Meuron saw this coming years ago when they printed facades or worked with colored concrete, for example. Modern materials are actually colorless. For example, I have to You can decide on a color for a brick, concrete or glass.
How should colors be used in construction today?
I always compare it to cooking. The trained chef knows what he needs for a dish. And just as the chef is a professional at the stove, the architect is a professional in the room. By virtue of his profession, he should therefore be keen to benefit from the cultural wealth of the region in which he builds. If you do not have the expertise in this area, you should definitely make up for it.
What questions should the architect always ask about color?
There are a few basic things that an architect should consider for every building: What is already there? How do I fit in? How do I set myself apart? I’m not even talking about beautiful and ugly here, I’m just defining purely functional criteria. Especially in public buildings, color can make a significant contribution to better orientation in the building. The architect should also ask himself which surface feels good to the touch? How must surfaces be designed – in terms of color and texture – so that users get a good feeling?
What can an architect actually do with color?
It can emphasize the material and surface texture of ceilings, walls and floors. With a careful gradation of colors you can influence the character of a room or accentuate important things.
