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THREAD: Colour in architecture is 2 often avoided & feared, which is a recent & silly tendency, becos its the most powerful tool we have in creating beautiful, impactful & effective atmospheres thru design. Even the ancients knew this, & their buildings were all brightly coloured
The last image was The News Building, Athens, Georgia, by Allan Greenberg from 1992. This is a reconstructed color scheme of the entablature on a Doric temple.
Its not mainstream to use colour with vigour & joy these days, but some designers manage to deploy it well, from public transport infrastructure to towers and interiors both sacred & profane, I’ll slowly be sharing a smorgasbord of examples to tickle the palatte & inspire
This & the last image are of the 'Università' underground station, Napoles, by Alessandro Mendini and Karim Rashid, 2011. Images unknown source
The Dan Hotel, Tel Aviv, 1953, facade rebuilt in 1986 to the design of artist Yaacov Agam.
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Photo copyright Alamy via http://www.cntraveler.com
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Photo copyright Alamy via http://www.cntraveler.com
Will Alsop’s ecstatically staccato Colorium in Dusseldorf, Germany, 2002. Images unknown source
The masterful polychromatic decorative scheme of the New York Central Synagogue, Henry Fernbach, 1870-2
Supergraphics by Mary Ann Rumney in the Murray House, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1969
Temple of All Religions, containing an Orthodox church, a mosque, and a synagogue, among other religious spaces. Staroye Arakchino Microdistrict, Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia, 1992-unfinished.
Image from http://russiatrek.org
Image from http://russiatrek.org
Reconstruction of the interior of the 16th Century Gwoździec synagogue, one of the many wooden synagogues of Eastern Europe, all of which were lost in the Holocaust.
Museum at Prairiefire, Overland Park, KS, USA, Verner Johnson, 2017. Photos by Sam Fentress
The Brandhorst Museum in Munich by Sauerbruch Hutton, 2005-9. Second photo by the architects
Ohtake Cultural Center by Ruy Ohtake, Sao Paolo, 2004. Image unknown source
The exquisitely crafted, beautifully designed, civically minded, urbane and just delightful VCA End of trip facilities at Melbourne University by @SXWArchitecture 2019
Edmund & Corrigan’s fabulous Melbourne RMIT Building number 8, from 1993, part of an architectural treasure trove of a campus and progenitor of much later genius by many other architects
Maishima Incineration & Power Plant, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Osaka 2000-2004.
Kuggen ("The cog"), Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg/Göteborg, Wingårdh Arkitektkontor, (Gert Wingårdh, Jonas Edblad, Charlotte Erdegard and Danuta Nielsen), 2011. Photo by Lindman via Archdaily
Hoechst AG Technical Administrative Building, Peter Behrens, 1924
Images via Reddit & Pinterest
Images via Reddit & Pinterest
Airport Hotel Berlin
PetersenArchitekten, 2012. Photo by Jan Bitter via Archello
PetersenArchitekten, 2012. Photo by Jan Bitter via Archello
Union Trust Building, Wirt C. Rowland of Smith, Hinchman & Grylls, Detroit, 1929. Images unknown source
Casa Gilardi, Mexico City
Luis Barragán, 1976. Images unknown source
Luis Barragán, 1976. Images unknown source
James Stirling & Michael Wilford’s Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, 1988. First image via Pinterest, 2nd: https://www.s-wert-design.de/produkt/wissenschaftszentrum/
Ricardo Bofill’s Walden 7, Barcelona, 1975. Images from: https://www.archdaily.com/332142/ad-classics-walden-7-ricardo-bofill
Ricardo Bofill’s La Murala Roja from 1968 https://www.archdaily.com/332438/ad-classics-la-muralla-roja-ricardo-bofill
Olaias Metro Station, Lisbon, Tomas Taveira, 1998. Photo by Paolo Bastos
Aveiro Stadium, Portugal, 2003, Tomás Taveira. Images unknown source
Various designs by Emmanuelle Moureaux in Tokyo
Pavilion in the Site of Reversible Destiny, Yoro Park in Gifu, 1995, Shusaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins
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Images unknown source
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Images unknown source
Reversible Destiny Lofts, Shusaka Arakawa & Madeline Gins, Tokyo, 2005. Photos by Margherita Visentini from: http://www.polpettas.com/reversible-destiny-lofts-mitaka-tokyo/
Various buildings by Fernando Peixoto, Bahia, Brazil
The Habitrail Garage, East Lansing, Michigan. Aka 'the Hampster Cage'.
Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Blasius.
Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Blasius.
Motisons Jewelry Building, Jaipur, Rajasthan, Kothari Associates, 2013
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León, Mansilla+Tuñón Arquitectos, 2005. Image unknown source
I have visited hundreds, possibly even thousands of churches in my life, but Butterfield’s All Saints (1850-9) is 1 of the few that I keep going back 2 again & again, & which each and every time, in its perfect polychromy, manages to momentarily remedy something broken inside me
Canteen of the former Headquarters of the Spiegel Publishing House, Verner Panton, 1969, Hamburg
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Photos by Michael Bernhardi, SPIEGEL-Verlag, 2011
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Photos by Michael Bernhardi, SPIEGEL-Verlag, 2011
Varna Restaurant, Arhus. Verner Panton, 1971.
Images via Verner Panton Design
Images via Verner Panton Design
Pool of the Raleigh Hotel, Miami, called the most beautiful in America by Life Magazine in 1947
Alliance Franco-Senegalaise, Kaolack, Dakar, Senegal, Patrick Dujarric, 1994
Mangyongdae children’s palace, Pyongyang, photo from Model City Pyongyang by cristiano bianchi and kristina drapić
Floor of the publishing house Salzburger Nachrichten, Gio Ponti, Austria, 1967
The Ark of architectural delight & fecundity that is the Judge Institute by John Outram, Cambridge, 1991-5
Cambridge University being quite a conservative place, Outram was restrained there in his use if colour, however in Duncan Hall at Rice University in Houston, he was allowed to do as he wished... 1996
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Photo by Jay Lee on Flickr, link: https://flickr.com/photos/baldheretic/25799615358
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Photo by Jay Lee on Flickr, link: https://flickr.com/photos/baldheretic/25799615358
Storm Water Pumping Station, Isle of Dogs, London, John Outram, 1987-88
Image from https://regencysociety.org/form-maker/ducks-and-decorated-sheds-shaping-the-postmodern-legacy-lecture/1988-john-outram-the-storm-water-pumping-station-isle-of-dogs-1987-88-2/
Image from https://regencysociety.org/form-maker/ducks-and-decorated-sheds-shaping-the-postmodern-legacy-lecture/1988-john-outram-the-storm-water-pumping-station-isle-of-dogs-1987-88-2/
An article I wrote about it for Icon Magazine in 2017
This is the central spiral staircase inside 
Mendini sometimes polemically, wildly dissolved forms through a pontilist use of granular colour
Stairs in the Groninger Museum, Alessandro Mendini, 1990-4
Photo by fototon2010 on Flickr
Mendini sometimes polemically, wildly dissolved forms through a pontilist use of granular colourStairs in the Groninger Museum, Alessandro Mendini, 1990-4
Photo by fototon2010 on Flickr
The Red Devils in Almere, the Netherlands, by dok architects, 1994-8
Images unknown source
Images unknown source
Tour LU, Nantes, Auguste Bluysen, 1909
Images unknown source
Images unknown source
Oblomov at Hotel Il Palazzo, Fukuoka, Japan, Shiro Kuramata, 1989
Ne'eman Towers complex, Tel Aviv, Israel, Canaan Shenhav, 2002-13, colour scheme by Yaacov Agam
Image unknown source
Image unknown source
The voluptuously luminous, saturated darkness of John Loughborough Pearson’s Fitzrovia Chapel in London
Entrance to The Palace, Miami, Arquitectonica, 1978-80
Arquitectonica's completely iconic Atlantis Condominium in Miami from 1980-82 & its famous jacuzzi-palm void
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image from http://architizer.com/idea/1089436/
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image from http://architizer.com/idea/1089436/
Helmut Jahn’s State of Illinois Center (1985) in Chicago is (under threat of demolition)
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photo from http://archpaper.com/2018/11/sale-o …
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photo from http://archpaper.com/2018/11/sale-o …
Sammezzano Castle, Leccio, Tuscany, 1853-99.
Images mixed sources
Images mixed sources
Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona, Lluís Domènech i Montaner, 1905-8
Images mixed sources
Images mixed sources
Santa Barbara church, San Donato (near Milan), Mario Bacciocchi, 1955
Pacific Design Center, the late, great Cesar Pelli, Los Angeles, three phases, 1975-1988-2013
Nuuk, the capital of Greenland.
The ubiquitous colourful facades originally had the purpose of communicating a settlement's functions over long distances to passing fishermen. Supply stores, churches and schools were painted red, hospitals yellow and municipal buildings blue...
The ubiquitous colourful facades originally had the purpose of communicating a settlement's functions over long distances to passing fishermen. Supply stores, churches and schools were painted red, hospitals yellow and municipal buildings blue...
This chromatic code took another twist during WW2, when another layer of information was added. A number and letter combination known only to the Allies were painted on rooftops in order to identify a particular settlement from the air while confusing enemy aircraft...
Melbourne has a most remarkable and unique school of polychromatic architecture that started to really kicked off around the time this was built... RMIT 8, Melbourne, Edmond Corrigan, 1993
Murray House by Charles Moore, Cambridge, MA, 1969... Supergraphics by Mary Ann Rummey
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Image via @gys44
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Image via @gys44
The incredible Cao Dai Temple, Tay Ninh, Vietnam, 1933, center of the Cao Dai religion.
Images unknown source
Images unknown source
A good article on the complex (in which it clarifies it was begun in ‘33 & finished in 55) https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/travel/in-vietnam-the-cao-dai-temple-mixes-religions-and-styles.html
Government offices, Kahramanmaraş, Turkey, 1994
Seven blocks of social housing in El Alto, Bolivia, painted with murals by Roberto Mamani, 2015
David Guthrie, Penthouse Apartment at Greenway Plaza, Houston, 1994
SRS Mall, Faridabad, India, 2004
Affordable Apartments, Alburquerque, New Mexico, Antoine Predock, 1986.
https://splurgefrugal.com/a-modern-route-66-style-icon/
https://splurgefrugal.com/a-modern-route-66-style-icon/
Hoechst AG Technical Administration Building, by Peter Behrens, Frankfurt, 1920-24
Photographs by Klaus Peter Hoppe
Photographs by Klaus Peter Hoppe
Friedensreich Hundertwasser believed we had a right to self expression & colour in architecture, stating that everyone should be free to paint & decorate the area they could reach outside their windows, this is his Green Citadel of Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany, 2005
This is his Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna...
And my personal favourite of his, the Maishima Incineration & Power Plant, Osaka, 2000-2004.
Niagara Galleries, Edmond and Corrigan, Richmond, Australia, 1986
Facade colour scheme, Otto-Richter-Straße, Magdeburg (clearly a city that lives its colour!), Germany, Carl Krayl, 1921-2
Ceiling of the Peacock Room, James McNeill Whistler
Esprit showroom, Düsseldorf, Germany, Ettore Sottsass, 1984-1986
Esprit showroom, Düsseldorf, Germany, Ettore Sottsass, 1984-1986
A wonderful home (i’d buy it) built by ceramicist Mary Rose Young https://uk.news.yahoo.com/renovated-cottage-unsellable-loud-decor-144908886.html?guccounter=1
D'Edge nightclub, Campo Grande, Brazil, Muti Randolph, 1999
Model for a life guard tower in Los Angeles, Ernst Lohse's submission for a 1988 competition
Jan Fabre’s Heaven of Delight ceiling, 2002, Royal Palace, Brussels. Made from 1.6 million Jewel beetle carcasses.
Photo by JN06 from https://www.flickr.com/photos/j0n6/16100368201/sizes/h/
Photo by JN06 from https://www.flickr.com/photos/j0n6/16100368201/sizes/h/
The fresco grotesques in Raphael Sanzio, Giulio Romano, Giovanni da Udine & Antonio da Sangallo the Younger's Villa Madama, 1518-25
Sauerbruch Hutton's corporate-chromatic facade for 2 New Ludgate, London, 2014
Taggart Townhouses, Houston, Texas, Arquitectonica, 1984
