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
The masterful polychromatic decorative scheme of the New York Central Synagogue, Henry Fernbach, 1870-2
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.
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
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
Union Trust Building, Wirt C. Rowland of Smith, Hinchman & Grylls, Detroit, 1929. 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
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/
The Habitrail Garage, East Lansing, Michigan. Aka 'the Hampster Cage'.
Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Blasius.
Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Blasius.
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
Mangyongdae children’s palace, Pyongyang, photo from Model City Pyongyang by cristiano bianchi and kristina drapić
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/
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

Stairs in the Groninger Museum, Alessandro Mendini, 1990-4
Photo by fototon2010 on Flickr
Ne'eman Towers complex, Tel Aviv, Israel, Canaan Shenhav, 2002-13, colour scheme by Yaacov Agam
Image unknown source
Image unknown source