Colour functions: contrasting
The second colour strategy sees the building as a focal point. This is a strategy that uses colour to refer to concepts disassociated with the setting of the building.
First applied to the walls of caves by prehistoric artists, our basic urge to decorate is usually expressed in the celebration of a building as an environmental focal point. At its simplest, this approach uses a sub-system of coloured patterns to embellish the planes or elements of a building form.
Colour symbolism is an ancient method of colouring buildings.
Another function of contrasting colour is as a symbolic device. A colour scheme employing essentially blue and white to symbolise 'purity' was used on the Parthenon by the ancient Greeks - the word 'Parthenon' being synonymous with cleanliness. Versions of this kind of colour language can be found in the modern environment where the colour of a building comments upon its main function. For instance, there are examples of yellow-coloured butter and margarine warehouses, red fire stations and this Ocean Blue coloured waterfront building.
Supergraphic colour is used like a kind of bright camouflage to fragment the mass of a building or be applied to promote a corporate identity.
Functioning as a kind of colourful camouflage, supergraphic colour can perform two functions: on the one hand, it can be used to break down an architectural mass through colour fragmentation; on the other hand, supergraphics can employ the colour of a company livery, a product or its packaging to promote corporate identity or an associated service.
Mainly associated with high-tech buildings, the use of colour coding uses hues to describe the function of the working parts of a structure.
Colour coding is a common strategy. It involves the colour diagramming of the various elements of a building. Popularised by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano on the facades of their Pompidou Centre in Paris, colour coding employs contrasting hues to index’ the working parts of a building in terms of structure and performance. Typical of coding is its association with ‘high tech’ buildings and the use of ‘strong hues for supporting elements, such as red for columns, and ‘lighter’ hues for supported elements, such as blue for beams.
