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This thesis explores how colours create an impact on space in relation to light intensity, texture and combination. 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?
Colours in architecture has the ability to alter volume, to hold a surface or to recede space. 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.
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 coloured surfaces. Similarly, in the Counter-construction project by Theo van Doesburg, he applied polychromy to the exterior walls to create spatial dissolution with coloured floating planes.
Through Maison Guiette, Le Corbusier criticized the approach of polychromy on exterior and believed that exterior should stay monochrome as it is considered as an envelope or a volume; whereas interior is polychrome. In his post-war buildings, Claude and Duval Factory and La Tourette, he treated colour as a final touch for spatial expression. He painted almost every interior element in bold colours. His works show the independency of colour and form. I would like to explore other ways of spatial expression such as the progression in colour intensity and how the gradient could highlight or recede space.
The idea of colour also expanded in works of James Turrell who used colours in relation to natural and artificial light for different spatial perceptions. Jean Nouvel revealed colours through the properties of 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.
Rather than treating colour as an autonomous subject from form or space, this thesis will look at how the approach of colour progression creates depth in space or breaks the unity of volume with the support of light and shadow, textures and combination.
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 colour with light intensity; colour as material; colour in combination. And these experimentations may bring forward to a larger scale of test case. Colours usually appear in kindergarten and dynamic spaces, I would like to apply my experimentation in still spaces such as a chapel in an urban area in Hong Kong. The current proposed site is redesigning St. Margaret Church in Happy Valley. As it is located in a relatively exposed area, different light conditions can be explored. I am also 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. This series of experimentations may explore how the perception changes with light or materials effects and ultimately lead to a broader scale of test cases that begin to challenge in the context of site and program.
HOW?
Colour alone gives flatness, what makes it have the ability to alter space is how light reacts, how materials give layers and how composition of colours changes focal point. To investigate how the progression in colours produce spatial expression on different aspects, experiments will be conducted in 3 categories: light intensity, materials and colour effects.
1-The thesis would begin with inserting colour schemes in church precedents to study strategic moments and spatial expressions. There will also be paintings of geometries and lines so as to explore the potential architectural elements from 2D to 3D.
2-Based on the drawings, the architectonics of spaces and volumes would be studied through modelling. Methods include trying different pigments and varnishes on materials which aim to create diverse effects in spatial qualities under different lighting conditions.
3-To explore the ambience and impact on viewers, comparison on various colour progression on spaces will be studied.
4-The spatial qualities of various churches and the context will also be analysed for further development on shaping the space.
Bibliography
Theory:
– Jan de Heer,1996, ‘The Architectonic Colour: Polychromy in the Purist Architecture of Le Corbusier’, Academy Editions, London
– William W. Braham,2002, ‘Modern Color/modern Architecture: Amédée Ozenfant and the Genealogy of Color in Modern Architecture’, Ashgate, England
Techniques:
– Axel Buether,2014, ‘Colour’, DETAIL Practice, Munich
– Katrin Trautwein, 2010, ‘128 Colors’, /birkhauser, Basel
Current:
– Alejandro Bahamón,2010, ‘Light color sound : sensory effects in contemporary architecture ’, W.W. Norton & Co, New York
– Byron Mikellides, Tom Porter 2009, ‘Colour for Architecture Today’, Taylor & Francis, Oxon
– Tom Porter,1997,‘The Architect’s Eye: Visualization and Depiction of Space in Architecture’, E & FN Spon, London
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