Architecture
Sauerbruch Hutton Architects
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Sauerbruch
Hutton Architects, based in London and Berlin, uses the Natural Colour System
in all its projects... GSW Headquarters, Berlin 'We like to use ecological aspects of buildings as design generators. For example, the west façade of GSW Headquarters, being the most obvious ecological building element, is where we concentrated the colour. Here the colour and depth of the façade and the movement of the shutters give the building legibility, idiosyncrasy and a certain sensuality.' |
Photonic Centre, Berlin
'In the case of the Photonic Centre in Berlin, we knew at the competition stage that the buildings would be wrapped or clad in an abstracted version of the spectrum.'The theme of light led to the spectral colour treatment on the skin of the buildings: 36 different colours (of mineral paint) have been applied to the concrete columns within the double façade, and the solar blinds between the columns have been powder-coated from the same family of colours.
Both buildings have received national and international awards.
Photography by Bitter & Bredt, Berlin.
Contact:
Sauerbruch Hutton Architects
www.sauerbruchhutton.de
Newhall Colour Palette
Newhall is a distinctive new neighbourhood in Harlow Essex. The masterplan demonstrates how high quality contemporary architecture located within a site that responds to its context can create an identity for the neighbourhood. To achieve this, the Newhall Design Code stipulates a colour and materials palette to be used to create contemporary architecture. This is based on the belief that every settlement can be distinct by virtue of its mineral setting.
A detailed study by the artist Tom Porter of the materials and colours used in local traditional architecture in the area informed four palettes which are used to describe facades, roofs, paintwork and floorscape. Quality materials include hand-made bricks, Welsh slates, and granite setts and kerbs for street details.
Newhall demonstrates that the intrinsic differences of every site can inform development proposals to create distinct places that have a character and identity of their own. It also illustrates that you don’t need fake elements and pastiche to make a place identifiable; high quality contemporary architecture located within a site that responds to its context can create highly successful identifiable places.
Contact
studio | REAL
www.studioreal.co.uk
A definitive Colour Theory Installation
| Colourist Andy Bradford completed the UK's largest exploration of Colour Theory, an installation for the School of Architecture and Planning at The University of the West of England.
Designed to provide an educational resource for both staff, students, and visiting environmental professionals, the installation is based on the theory of Johannes Itten. Using NCS colours and sponsored by Crown Paints the project helps reinforce the multidisciplinary ethos of the University by creating links with other facilities which have an interest in colour, such as psychology, art, media and design. www.andybradford.com |
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RNIB - NEW Colour Contrast Guidance for Accessible Housing
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This new publication by Janet John of RNIB Cymru explains the practical process of planning for colour contrast and illustrates a method which can be applied to a design specification.
The NCS Colour Centre provided both advice on current colour contrast requirements, as well as the Colour Contrast Specifying Tools used by the RNIB in their training programme. www.rnib.org.uk/cymru "RNIB Cymru is to be congratulated on the production of this supplementary guidance which I am convinced is going to be an invaluable tool for technical officers involved in the planning and delivery of homes for people with sight loss. The publication builds on good practice with Wales and West Housing Association and demonstrates the commitment of the housing association movement and RNIB Cymru to jointly support the housing needs of people with visual impairments." Nick Bennett Chief Executive Community Housing Cymru. |
Blackburn with Darwen Design Guide and Colour Study
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This innovative NEW Design guide and colour study for Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council shows their commitment to ensure good design throughout the region.
Colour is one of seven design principles used collectively in planning considerations.
www.blackburn.gov.uk |
Longyearbyen - A Unique Colour Design Project - 78 Degrees North
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This unique
colour project was carried out over a period of 20 years.
Commissioned by the Spitzbergen Coal Company the designer Grete Smedal gradually created a colour profile and then a colour plan, documented in her book 'Longyearbyen in colour - status and challenges' |
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The extreme
climate means that vegetation is very sparse and the appearance of the
landscape changes from snow in the winter to earth and black gravel in
the summer. Together with the dramatically seasonal changes in daylight
hours, this made the project extremely demanding. |
Colour Studies: Promoting local distinctiveness - Cherwell District Council
The choice of colour within our built environment tends to be arbitrary and often fails to acknowledge that towns and neighbourhoods are characterised by their own unique colour palette. Through an investigation of chromatic detail of a representative sample of existing buildings, and using the methodology of colour theorist Jean-Phillipe Lenclos, colour palettes have been produced for the town centres of Banbury, Bicester and Kidlington. These provide guidance for the choice of colour for elevations, floorscape, roofs, paint-work and street furniture.
Colour palettes are being used to inform decisions taken by development control officers and also in the co-ordination of colours and materials used in street works by the council.
Contact
studio | REAL
www.studioreal.co.uk
