The Modern Skyline, Part One

Chicago River Skyline via Wikipedia

Cities today are huge influences on our lives. They are where most people live, work, create and invent.  They even influence even our walking speed. Looking at the emergent color of city skylines is one way of tracking the evolution of our dominant building materials as well as advancement in engineering skills and changing architectural trends.   Many cities have major buildings from a scattering of decades all packed in together. Historically the skyline had a decidedly earth tone palette.  The  buildings were constructed from regional stone, masonry and brick made with  soils from the geographic locale. This  view of the Chicago skyline is dominated by a color scheme of  muted grays and browns. The earth tones suggest the feeling of  strength and solidity while still being friendly  and inviting. But what will our future skylines look like?

Current Skyline Color Pallet

A rendering of the future skyline of Abu Dhabi via Construction Weekly

With the recent construction booms in China and the Middle East,  they are good places to look for the future of skylines. The rendering above is a projection of what Abu Dhabi will look like in coming decades. Shapes or placements of specific buildings may change but the color trend is clear. Admittedly all glass and metal buildings are taking over city space. The crystalline blue of the sky reflects in the glass but there is little other color.  The city skyline seems to inching toward grey scale.  With so little color the shining city of the future starts to look monochromatic.

Future Skyline Color Pallet

We are moving away from paint and nature based building materials.  Glass and steel  are the new kings of architecture. Color is left to the lighted signs of advertisers. These colors compete for our attention in busy outdoor environments.  Advancements in light technology and  flat screen projections  create  increasingly brighter and visually stimulating experiences  as evidenced by this Tokyo street corner at night.  The colors bleed together on the wet sidewalks. The future of cities and our everyday experience of color is definitely changing. On our next post we will highlight a few beautiful architectural anomalies in the skyscraper business and see how they are using shape instead of color to differentiate themselves in a glass and steel world.

Tokyo via Tokyo Nights Tumblr

- Emily Eifler, Writer, Colour Studio

- Jill Pilaroscia, Principal, Colour Studio

The Modern Skyline, Part Two

New York in the New York skyline via Notoriety Inc.

In our most recent post we talked about the encroaching grey scale of modern skylines. In this post we wanted to show you a few ways architects have used shape, instead of color, to differentiate their creations from the surrounding buildings. The visual appearance of  predominately flat high gloss buildings has become ubiquitous as  glass and steel become the preferred materials for skyscrapers. But within those constraints some very unique buildings have been recently designed.

This is Aqua, a skyscraper in Chicago completed in 2010. It was designed by Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects. The building won many awards for it ground breaking design. The wave like surface is made with a series of curved balconies, wrapping around the building in ripples.

Aqua via Wikipedia

With a tall rectangular core and floor to ceiling windows, the basic structure of the Aqua makes it sound like it would melt into the background  of  similar  downtown buildings.   The unique design of the curving  building skin makes it stand out dramatically. Even though this building lacks  color variation from it neighbors it curved balconies give the over all structure a twisting undulating motion to the eye creating contrasts in color value. These wave forms, inspired by nature, are a unique way to augment the standard steel and glass skyscraper. 

Aqua in the Chicago skyline via Critique This

Another great example of this  direction in skyscrapers is the Frank Gehry residential high rise in New York.

These rippling buildings look a bit like pebbles disturbing a smooth pond. They are breaking out of the formalized vertical  curtain wall of the modern high rise. Gehry himself says the building is an architectural representation of the texture and energy of the city. Ripples pass through the seemingly other wise standard flat steel and glass high rise as through the winds were pulling the surface along with it. Their site has a great video showing the interaction of the  the building with the city.

New York via Notoriety Inc.

Up close we can see that Gehry too is using a fairly standard  high rise model which is then augmented with shaped balconies and windowsills. These two building are great example of natural/modern hybrid skyscrapers. But not all uses of this shape focused innovation have come out to critical acclaim. While not a high rise, the new Burberry flagship store in Chicago definitely tried to innovate inside the contemporary gray-scale palette.

Burberry Flagship Store in Chicago via Burberry's Google Plus page

Architectural Record put it this way "Burberry works hard to hold on to an upper-crust image and to look forward at the same time. The clothing, accessories and ads do all that. But this building, with its backlit, angled, checked pattern is the dissonant score in the company repertoire. It is loud and vulgar. It's the car salesman who won't go away. Worst of all, it's not architecture -- it's a building as billboard." The architectural criticism is harsh and suggests the design concept was to cover the building  in Burberry plaid.  While still colorless  and monochromatic, the contrasts in  light and dark  color value are notable    Lets hope that color will tag along with shape innovation and lead to the potential for chromatic skylines in the future.

- Emily Eifler, Writer, Colour Studio

- Jill Pilaroscia, Principal, Colour Studio

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week is one of the most colorful holidays of the year! Thanksgiving isn't just a feast of food its a treat for all the senses. To do our  Thanksgiving part we wanted to bring you a color side dish to spice up you Thanksgiving table! 

A Riot of Color via Design Sponge

Oranges, deep reds and browns have long been the traditional colors of Fall and Thanksgiving. But contemporary design has mixed in  unconventional  colors and patterns to modernize the autumnal  palette.  Fresh greens and brights pinks liven up this table for a effervescent harvest feel. The meal is served on a joyous and energetic slate. 

Thanksgiving Kids Table via Sweet Design

With the right use of color the kids table is no longer a second class seat. Who wouldn't love sitting at this colorful and creative place setting. The right colors bring out the celebratory feeling of the holiday and add to all the wonderful things we  have to be grateful for.

DIY Paper Lantern via Martha Stewart's Crafts Department

If you are someone who likes to make the magic themselves this is a great leafy autumn lamp project to hang over your beautiful feast. Hand made projects add festive detail to a meal and a day made with love and gratitude. And while our own tables may be more focused on chocolate cake and turkey it nice to see the riot of color one of our favorite holidays inspires!

Need a great place to take a nap after all the festivities? Architizer has a list of ten beautiful spots to curl up. Have a great Thanksgiving!

- Emily Eifler, Writer, Colour Studio

- Jill Pilaroscia, Principal, Colour Studio

Superkilen Park a Blaze of Color

A colorful new urban park has been completed in Denmark. The kilometer long park is located just north of Copenhagen city center. The press release describes the area as "one of the most ethnically diverse and socially challenged neighborhoods in Denmark."

Superkilen Park via World Architecture News

The park is separated in to three areas. A large sporting green, a black and white themed square for playing chess or having lunch, and a stunning red orange zone for recreational or cultural activities. The park is  populated by over a hundred cultural objects from around the world that reflect the diversity of the surrounding community. Beyond the  integration of the cultural milieu surrounding the area the park is a stellar example of color usage in urban planning. The three spaces of the park are colored specifically for their intended  usage. The sporting area is green for obvious reasons. But the other two spaces have intention and color psychology behind them.

SuperKilen via Big

In the black and white area there are sweeping lines painted on the ground reminiscent of traffic flow or  topographical elevation patterns. This public space is designed to allow people to  mix and mingle. Its a shared space in an area in need of lowering barriers. It is sparsely sprinkled with trees, benches, tables and includes a quirky  childrens playground.   There is an open spacious feel to the area and the neutral color  palette allows the people to be the attraction. 

Superkilen via Romex

The red orange space is filled with a high velocity patch work of color. From above the reds, oranges, and pinks seem to spill out over everything, catching buildings and bike paths and benches. It is a bright visual beacon surrounded by blues and grays. The color helps draw eyes toward the park and gives people an energy boost. A happy, creative, active space seems like just the thing this neighborhood needs. A park cannot fix all cultural disparities of course, but hopefully Superkilen will get residents interacting and more urban planners on the color train! It so beautiful we want one in San Francisco too!

- Emily Eifler, Writer, Colour Studio

- Jill Pilaroscia, Principal, Colour Studio

Chinese color symbology

When thinking about color for modern architecture we often turn to color theory and studies on the effects of color on psychology to support the function of the space. While these methods are effective and work well for the modern system it hasn't always been the way color was chosen for buildings. 

For thousands of years cultural color symbolism had supremacy over the aesthetics or function of color. A great example of symbolism as the dominate paradigm is 14th and 15th century Chinese architecture. Architects of the time were very concerned with color. Colors acted as cultural sign posts.

Imperial Yellow via Wikipedia

Examples of   using color  for delineation  are  the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City. The two spaces were identified for different uses by their roof color. Imperial color at the time was a strong distinct yellow and  the Forbidden City was all given distinctive  yellow tile roofs,  the architectural element  reserved for buildings built for the Emperor of China. The roof and figurative ornamentation distinguished the buildings as having the highest status. The symbolic color  can be seen from great distances and thus indicated the seat of power without written signs or Google maps.

High Status Yellow Roof  via Wikipedia

Temple of Heaven via Wikipedia

The Temple of Heaven, or more literally translated the Alter of Heaven, in contrast to Imperial Yellow,  was built using rich sky blue tiles. Blue was the symbolic color of the gods.  In a comparatively advanced and literate society color was  used to delineate city structures. The buildings were essentially color coded. A beautiful large format panorama of the Temple of Heaven can be seen here.

Blue Temple of Heaven roof via Mondo

- Emily Eifler, Writer, Colour Studio

- Jill Pilaroscia, Principal, Colour Studio

Color Coded

A few posts back we talked about color carrying information from planets outside our solar system. The colors were a visual indicator of the chemistry on the planets surface and whether or not life as we know it could exist in that environment. Color is used in a myriad of situations to communicate information.

Hospital way finding example via Design Center

Take the  example of using colored stripes on the floor or wall to lead people through buildings. Many institutions like hospitals, airports and large office environments can get people turned around very easily. Does the upward pointing arrow mean straight  as in forward or back the way you came ? Color is an effective method of solving architectural way finding problems.

Visitors may be illiterate or speak a language not covered by the hospitals signage but they can still follow a colored line. Go to the orange door is an easier mental task than 5th door on your left.  Frequently  the situations that bring you to large unfamiliar  institutional settings is stressful.  This compounds the task of determining if you are  getting  off  the elevator on the right floor or finding the right department.

A fun twist on way finding at Revolution Salon via Inthralled

Before we file this great architectural color application  under function only take a look at this creative salon in Mexico City. Even though the space is small and the doors could easily be numbered, a more  inventive approach was used. Each of the private rooms has its own color theme. Clients commonly request their favorite vibe. The receptionist then instructs the client to follow the corresponding color on the floor. Instead of  the straight  or parallel lines we find in more utilitarian settings, these colors meander. They accentuate the geometric repetition in the architecture of the space. Form and function are fused.

- Emily Eifler, Writer, Colour Studio

- Jill Pilaroscia, Principal, Colour Studio

Cutting Edge & Bigger than Life

Undersea decals by Inaninstantart

Adding color, texture and imagery helps us personalize our spaces. It can make a standard room feel like our own personalized lair.   It  can make an anonymous space feel comfortable. Composing wall colors is a huge part of that process but  paint isn't our only option. New technology gives us state of the art  options.

The recent proliferation of laser cutters has opened the market for vinyl decals. Designers draw the patterns using vector programs. Then the decals are produced using a laser to cut the patterns out of vinyl sheets.

Tentacle decal by Pillboxdesigns

These colorful accents are a great option for renters or  color commitment-phobes. Because the vinyl sticks to the wall using static electricity instead of adhesive they can be removed without damaging the wall. They are also great because buying them supports small design shops. The vinyl comes in an amazing varity of colors.

Vinyl colors by Pillboxdesigns

Are you a bit more adventurous but the thought of painting your own mural is daunting? You can move up to custom wallpaper murals. While more expensive, a variety of large format printing shops make custom murals to fit your chosen wall. Large format printers are very similar to home printers but they can print up to 100 inches wide and can accommodate special papers like wallpaper.

Wallpaper mural via Epiplo Aris

Wallpaper murals are much harder to install and to remove but they pack a visual wallop. The example above is  'Lady from the Orient ' by Vladimir Tretchikoff.  These beautiful murals  can enhance  neutral minimally  colored  spaces and lend an air of sophistication and scale to living.   They can take "accent wall" to a new level.

In contrast, children's murals, can add color and imagery to spark the imagination.

A half sized wall mural via Eglue

Will you consider using laser cut vinyl decals or wallpaper murals to spice up  your environment ?

- Emily Eifler, Writer, Colour Studio

- Jill Pilaroscia, Principal, Colour Studio