Colour as Idea: The Conceptual Basis for Using Colour in Architecture and Urban Design

Abstract

In schools of architecture and urban design, particularly in the United States, colour is rarely a subject of serious inquiry in the studio. Colour often appears in the final phase of the design process, and the reasoning for colour choices is almost never questioned. Colour is considered secondary to building form and structure, reflecting attitudes held by many design professionals since the Renaissance. Critics in architectural reviews often refer to colour decisions as 'difficult' to discuss rationally, representing personal views that are in consequential. The methodology presented here is an attempt to make colour consequential as an integral part of the three phrases of a design process: the conceptual phase, the schematic/form-making phase and the design development phase. When this is achieved, colour decisions become part of the generative conceptual ideas of a project, and these can influence all phases of the design process. Colour can clarify and define space, for and structure. In the design development phase, the final colour decisions are focused and specific. The role of colour in design can serve as a complement to the traditional visual elements of line, structure, form and detail. This design methodology specifies how colour is used in the three phrases: colour dynamics in the conceptual phase, colour tectonics in the schematic/form-making phase and colour imagery in the design development phase. Using colour as a means for recording the experience of a pedestrian view of the city is an additional emphasis in urban design. This is accomplished with experience maps, and using colour to represent the life of the street through street activity diagrams.