Colour and Space
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“Colour is a fascination, but it isn’t about colour. It’s about how you can read spaces, adapt, and how colours can make more depth in architecture…we need to be more flexible and more hybrid with architectural entities and typologies.“- Ben van Berkel This thesis explores how colours create an impact on space and viewers through different techniques. It aims to include the dimensions of colour and art as an intrinsic part of designing space in order to articulate architectonic features together with light and materials, highlighting the sensory experience and enhancing identity to the surroundings. WHY?
Art in architecture could alter spatial depth in architecture. Andrea Pozzo used the technique of quadrature which was emerging painting with St. Ignazio Church to create a three dimensional effect as if there is an extension of the church roof towards heaven. Colours also act as an ornamental instrument in religious architecture to give symbolic meaning and spiritual atmosphere through light and shadow. The ceilings and windows of Nasir Al Mulk Mosque are richly filled with sacred colours and symbolic geometries. Painting and space were closely linked in the early twentieth century. Under the influence of De Stijl movement, Gerrit Rietveld used the contrast in primary colours from the paintings of Piet Mondrian on the design of Schroder House. He blurred the boundary of interior and exterior by letting the lines and intersecting planes extend outwards with the identical colour surfaces. Inspired by muralism, Ricardo Legorreta is well-known for his ambitious use of striking bold colours and abstract art on building surfaces. He also took social reform and cultural elements in consideration when dealing with colours, such as the façade of San Antonio Public Library is designed with a vibrant Enchilada Red. His works often displayed the effects of colour on visual perception with sharp lines and geometric figures. Moreover, Jean Nouvel also revealed colours through the properties building materials. The Torre Agbar has a multi-colored facade that changes colours with the intensity of sunlight. Nouvel also created a complex composition of colours and light with the reflectivity of materials from the Lycee Duhoda in Nimes. Investigating and building upon the concept on how colours accentuate architectural features, this thesis also looks at the ability of colours in flattening a certain space, which may add another layer of perception in architecture. WHAT? This thesis seeks to study the visual perceptions and emotions of colours in architecture. Hence, it would start with a series of fragments of spaces, from tall to narrow, to experiment the effect of colours on increasing and decreasing the depth of space with light, materials, texture and form. And these experimentations may bring forward to a larger scale. The site may have another new function inserted in it, such as having a musical hall in an existing church. I am interested in how the use and atmosphere of space can be transformed through colours and art, creating different sensory perceptions. Choosing to start off with smaller spaces is to focus on experimenting spatial qualities and certain architectural elements which may be useful in developing a larger site. Taking chapel as a site and adding a new musical hall for the next stage is because of its perquisites properties of having high ceiling spaces and ambience of the space in church which is suitable to experiment with light, materials, acoustic effects and spatial division.
HOW? 1-The thesis would begin with paintings of geometries and lines so as to explore the potential architectural elements and forms from 2D to 3D. Bibliography: |
