A@W Newsletter

As an architectural design element, colour is often associated with ‘colourful’ and is therefore not considered timeless and serious. In practice, colour is therefore often neglected. However, between colour-intensive and common achromatic concepts, there are a variety of ways to strengthen architecture with soft tones depending on proportions, surfaces, lighting conditions and use.

‘Colourful is my favourite colour’
Walter Gropius, architect and founder of the Bauhaus

It is often said that architects can only do black and white. It is true that colour design is generally given far too little importance in structural engineering studies, which is why many colleagues, especially in Germany, do not dare to tackle the subject of colour. As a result, neutral black and white tones are often used in addition to the material-related colour palettes that have become established on the market, whereby often only a small nuance of the chosen colour tone already means added value for the architecture. In interior design, the subject of colour is viewed in a more differentiated way and in recent years we have been able to observe how much bolder the colour schemes in interiors have become. But here too, quiet, achromatic concepts play an important role.

The word ‘chromatic’ comes from the Greek and means ‘colourful’. Chromatic (i.e. bright) colours therefore include tones with a high colour saturation, such as bright yellow, red, blue or green. The opposite are the achromatic colours, which have neither a specific hue nor saturation, such as black, white and all shades of grey in between. But what are intermediate tones, such as low-chromatic (low chromatic) colours, and why are they so popular at the moment?

Berlin-based Grüntuch Ernst Architekten transformed the listed brick building of a former women's prison into a peaceful oasis. Light colours now create an atmosphere of contemplation and retreat in the Charlottenburg hotel. 
© Wilmina | Photo: Robert Rieger

We live in a world full of visual stimuli that need to be processed in the brain; after all, our sense of sight provides around 80 per cent of all information from our environment. Is it not a logical consequence that we long for a little more visual calm in some areas? The so-called ‘neutrals’, i.e. very soft colours inspired by nature, are white, sand, blue, green, grey and earth tones with little colour saturation. These nuances create a harmonious whole in a balanced interplay and work particularly well with corresponding contrasts that are used as accent colours.

Good and holistic colour and material concepts are created when these are considered at an early stage within the first service phases. In German, they unfortunately do not differentiate between the paint and the colour effect of the material (the surface), as is the case in Dutch with ‘verf “ and ”kleur’ or in English with ‘paint’ and ‘colour’. Communication about colour is therefore somewhat more difficult in this country, especially as even in relation to the coating often only the colour nuance is meant. However, the paint with its corresponding functions in conjunction with the requirements and the respective substrate is an important building material. The combination of coatings and material colours, which can also be reworked and nuanced depending on the surface, is exciting.

Under the project title ‘Habitat 100’, the Swedish Note Design Studio creates atmospheric living spaces with high-quality surfaces and soft colour tones.
© Photo: Irina Boersma César Machado

Pritzker Prize winner Sir David Alan Chipperfield, the English architect and photographer John Pawson and the Belgian art collector and interior designer Axel Vervoordt, for example, see themselves in the tradition of quiet colour concepts. In the projects of these three designers, the architectural field of tension is created through the masterful use of structure, material, colour and light, resulting in wonderfully atmospheric spaces.

Mexican architect Tatjana Bilbao's projects, which explore the historical culture and building traditions of Mexico, are often created in collaboration with landscape architects and artists, who anchor the theme of ‘landscapes’ in the ecologically and socially characterised works. Through the use of sustainable materials, the buildings and concepts of the urban landscapes, right through to the ‘inner landscape’ of the individual building, also have a natural, soft colour scheme and a very special aesthetic in terms of the materials used.

Tatiana Bilbao Estudio researches and interprets historical building cultures and the local building traditions of her home country, such as the use of rammed earth or inexpensive everyday materials. Image: ‘Ways of Life project’ in Scheid am Edersee,
© Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO

In the course of climate-friendly construction, ecological and traditional building materials such as mycelium traditional building materials such as mycelium, algae and clay with their corresponding handcrafted surfaces, which are likely to bring with them a new definition of ‘beauty’ and new colours. As far as paints are concerned, healthy colours such as clay, lime, chalk and silicate paints are gaining in importance. Even if they do not have quite as wide a spectrum as some industrially produced dispersions due to their material properties, the surface qualities of these paints always bring added value.

The use of material- and manufacturer-independent colour systems, such as the RAL DESIGN SYSTEM plus, the NSC Natural Color System or the Munsell Color Order System used primarily in the USA and Japan, in which each colour tone is anchored according to hue, brightness and saturation, is of fundamental importance for colour design and colour communication within the planning team or with the client. This arrangement in the three-dimensional colour space is identified within the respective colour system with a corresponding code that describes the properties of the shade. Particularly when dealing with low chromaticity colours, there are very fine adjustments in the area of the grey axes. In practice, it is therefore partly due to the lack of tools within the planning offices that the variety of soft tones is not fully utilised. It is worth investing in the appropriate tools for careful colour planning - even for louder concepts.

The RAL DESIGN SYSTEM plus is a colour system in which the colours are sorted according to 39 hues and a grey axis and are finely graded in terms of brightness and chroma. Each colour tone is clearly identified by a 7-digit RAL code and a unique, associative colour name. 
© RAL Lightness Model_ RAL g

Last year, the Natural Colour System launched 100 new standard colours with a low chromatic content (in the three-dimensional colour body, these are colours that are close to the grey axis), which are currently among the most popular shades in the system. 
© NCS - Natural Colour System®

With a flexible room-in-room system in subtle colours, the Stuttgart-based Ippolito Fleitz Group (Identity Architects) ensures zoning in a working landscape in the Hassia Group's Baumhaus - Neue Arbeitswelt project, in which there is a suitable place for every task.
© Philip Kottlorz/ The Hassia Group's Baumhaus - New Working World

Originally written by Julia Hausmann