EXPERIENCING COLOURS AND SOUND
IN ARCHITECTURE
ASSIGNMENT-02 PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT AYSHWARYA SURESH | 2019804003 | M. ARCH(GENERAL) | SAP BATCH-2019
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COLOUR IN ARCHITECTURE In architecture color is used to emphasize the character of a building, to accentuate its form and material, and to elucidate its divisions. EVERY BUILDING HAS A COLOUR: PURELY ARCHITECTONIC SENSE If by "color" we mean not only the primary hues but also all the neutral tones from white through gray to black and all mixtures, then it is evident that every building has color. Hence the employment of colours is in a purely architectonic sense. NATURE’S COLOURS • Man used the materials which Nature supplied and which experience taught him were strong and serviceable. • The walls of his dwelling might be of hard-packed mud dug up on the building site or of stones gathered nearby. To these he added twigs, withes and straw. The result was a structure in nature's own colors, a human dwelling which, like a bird's nest, was an integral part of the landscape. • Later, man discovered how to make the materials more durable than they were from nature's hand, and new colors began to appear. By baking clay, we get red and yellow bricks instead of the gray, sun-dried variety. By tarring wood, we secure a deep black.
Colours in pre-historic shelters
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Modern Inspiration-01: Tree hotel in Switzerland
Modern Inspiration-02: High Desert House by Kendrick Kellog
Modern Inspiration-03: Stone House in Portugal 3
COLOUR: ONE OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A MATERIAL • In many civilizations the bright colors which are used are often separated by a white border which allows each color to stand forth in its full strength. • In contrast to their green surroundings, the log-houses in rural districts in Norway and Sweden are often painted a deep red.
Norwegian Red Houses The Swedish art historian, Erik Lundberg, has advanced the theory that it started in imitation of the much grander and more durable red brick manor houses. The idea arose that a real house had to be red. Later generations imitated stucco houses and their colors. House 3000 by Rebelo de Andradeis 4
House 3000: Visual Landmark among 1000 acre of forests COLOUR AS A SYMBOL • It is probably simplifying the truth to call such employment of color "imitation." It is not an attempt to deceive people. Rather, the colors were regarded as symbols. • In Peking bright colors were reserved for palaces, temples and other ritual buildings. Ordinary dwellings were made colorless artificially. • Within the large precincts of the Temple of Heaven all roofs were of blue glazed tiles. While ordinary citizens were forbidden to use colored tiles.
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Temple of Heaven
COLOUR EMPHASIS IN A ROOM: GERMANIST THEORY A German theorist has described at length how colour can be used to emphasize not only what is large and what is small but also what is up and what is down. • The floor, like the earth we walk on should give an impression of gravity. Therefore, it should have the gray or brown tones of clay or rocky ground. • Walls, should have more color, like flowering shrubs and trees and everything that rises above the solid earth. • And, finally, the ceiling should be light and airy, in tones of white or delicate shades of pink and blue, like the sky over our heads. It would give a feeling of insecurity, he claims, to walk on pink or blue floors, and we would feel the ceiling as a heavy load weighing us down if it were painted a dark color. CASE STUDY: FAABORG MUSEUM | CARL PETERSEN
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The building’s colourful mosaic floor interacts with the furniture design, its many corridors and its small nooks and crannies. You need to engage your mind as well as your body. In return, museumgoers have the opportunity of accessing the ‘here’ and ‘now’.
DAYLIGHTING AND COLOUR CONSIDERATIONS: • Instead of trying to make the cool rooms warm it is possible to do just the opposite by employing colors which emphasize their cool atmosphere. • Even when the sun is warmest and most brilliant, daylight in northern rooms will have a blue undertone because all light here is, after all, solely and exclusively reflection from the sky. • If in northern rooms cool colors are used and in southern rooms warm colors, all of the colors will sparkle in their full radiance. ARCHITECTURAL POLYCHROMY: The architectural colours – le Corbusier’s architectural polychromy is a masterpiece. The ideal tool for masterful architectural colour design. It offers 63 fascinating shades that le Corbusier created in two colour collections – in 1931 and 1959. All shades are eminently architectural, naturally harmonious and can be combined in any way. Each hue has its relevance and embodies specific spatial and human effects. "Colour in architecture – a means as powerful as the ground plan and section. Or better: polychromy, a component of the ground plan and the section itself."
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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF COLOURS IN INTERIOR SPACES:
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TOWARDS A NEW PARADIGM IN COLOUR PSYCHOLOGY • Contemporary architects and artists are now collaborating to completely change the way we experience colour from a pure visual interface to a total immersive 3-dimensional sensory experience. • This development has been furthered by the role of technology in fabrication, lighting and advancement in materials research. • Sense of space, time and emotions are taken to the extreme in these immersive coloured environments. • Artist Olafur Eliasson is well known for his use of colours in his installations to draw magical emotional response from viewers. • Such installations are limited but their impact is phenomenal – everything we thought we knew about colours and their impact on the human mind might soon change forever when we move beyond seeing colours to feeling them.
Installations by Artist Olafur Eliasson
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HEARING IN ARCHITECTURE IMPORTANCE OF ACOUSTICS • Most people would probably say that as architecture does not produce sound, it cannot be heard. But neither does it radiate light and yet it can be seen. • We see the light it reflects and thereby gain an impression of form and material. In the same way we hear the sounds it reflects and they, too, give us an impression of form and material. • Differently shaped rooms and different materials reverberate differently. CASE STUDY-01: THORVALDSEN’S MUSEUM Thorvaldsen's Museum in Copenhagen has an acoustical effect very much like that of passageways and tunnels. In 1834 the Danish king donated an old barrel-vaulted coach house to hold the works of the famous sculptor. This may lead to the opinion that the acoustics of Thorvaldsen's Museum are poor unless steps are taken to improve them which is true enough when it is used for chamber music. But it could just as well be said that it has excellent acoustics, provided the right kind of music is performed.
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CASE STUDY-02: DEAFSPACE
Reimagining built environments so as to best suit the needs of Deaf people, architect Hansel Bauman founded the DeafSpace Project (DSP) with Gallaudet University’s ASL Deaf Studies Department in 2005. • DSP has established DeafSpace Guidelines, which include more than 150 different architectural elements. These elements fall into five categories: sensory reach; space and proximity; mobility and proximity; light and colour; and acoustics. • They aim to address not only the practical needs of communication, but also the need we all have to feel safe and secure in our surroundings. A few ways to transform a space into DeafSpace: • Carpeted tiles can reduce reverberation, and noisy air conditioners and generators can be placed where they will cause the least amount of disruption Use sliding doors where possible so that signed conversations can continue uninterrupted. • Use glass walls. • Install wooden floors so that loud banging sounds can be felt from other rooms.
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