Blog entries tagged with Colour Architecture

Apartment 50 is the perfect example of how to use colour in the interior environment. There are few designers out there capable of touching the French Bouroullec brothers, Ronan and Erwan, in terms of use of colour in design. The work the pair have done for Magis, Kvadrat (the gorgeous Clouds - scroll to the bottom) and indeed their extensive concepts and work under their own eponymous brand.
Situated in Marseille, Apartment 50, Unité d'Habitation is grand project. The apartment itself is actually lived in but will be open to the public between the 15 July to 15 August. In a 'I know a man' kind of way, the Bouroullecs were introduced to the owner of the apartment by Jasper Morrison. The apartment itself is part of a housing project in the city, designed by le Courbusier and originally fitted out by Charlotte Perriance and Jean Prouvé - so even without the touch of the brother's it is a living memorial to the legend of one of the 20th centuries most important architects.
Looking at the Bouroullec's new take on things it's a gentle project. Sympathetic to the building's original charm and intentions. There is a smattering of pieces from the brother's back-catalogue but it's not showy. Colours are restrained, save for a lick of powdery blue in the living area - displayed almost painterly in a large frame-come-shelf. "Remembering that Le Courbusier had a special interest in tapestries, we felt comfortable with the idea of installing a group of Clouds up on the wall," says the pair.
It's a beautifully considered project a pairing of an architectural icon with two icons of the future.

Last year one building stood out above the rest in terms of colour (although, archtiecturally speaking it was not exactly weak - it was wonderful), the Klein Bottle House by McBride Charles Ryan Architecture & Interior Design.
The Australian architecture firm has been demonstrating how intelligent and bold use of colour in architecture can enrich the viewing and user experience for many years now. Its projects across Australia generating praise from all quarters despite the country's insular cultural landscape. Like St Ives in England or the Southern Europe's peninsulas, Australia has a wonderfully exciting take on colour - many believe to be influenced by its proximity to the sea and its ongoing development of its own architectural history.
Indeed colour plays such an important role in Australia that it is one of the only countries to celebrate colour in architecture and reward dynamic colour use each year in the Dulux Colour Awards.
This year's top award, the Grand Prix was awarded to McBride Charles Ryan for its work on Melbourne's Fitzry High School. "Despite remarkable competition, the work on the school stood out - with McBride Charles Ryan's deft ability to integrate interior and exterior by using paint as a common connection being highly praised," noted the judges.
Reds, vibrant greens, colour blocking, gradient colourways, popping colours against taupes and softer neutrals... You can only imagine what it must be like to learn in such a remarkable interior.
 

This week's colour is big and its red and its a thing. Shanghai and Rome-based architects 3Gatti have given a new office building something of a talking point in the form of A Red Object, which houses a a couple of meeting rooms and a cafe.
Situated right in the middle of the office building, formerly an old factory, the object is imposing and yet works well with its surroundings which are simple monochrome. The architects have drawn parallels with a variety of different sources as to why red was chosen and not another colour. The one we like best concerns red as an underlining of a specific point of interest on a piece of text.
Historically, red, white and black have always sat well together but it is wise to consider that you are dealing with three very powerful colours so balance is important. 3Gatti have achieved just that with a perfect deployment of bold colour.

Colorama's success as the largest independent paint retailer in the Nordic region is no real surprise, placing the customer's needs first and foremost. This year the company is bringing its customers extra choice through giving them not only paints and coatings but wallpapers, soft furnishings, blinds, tiling and flooring options in its new catalogues. Yet stock is nothing without knowledge, so to help its customers more Colorama has its own in-store Interior Advisors to help customers with their interior projects.

Colorama visited the NCS Headquarters a number of times during 2010 to take full advantage of the full range of NCS materials, colour tools, the NCS Colour Academy and our perfect lighting conditions. Over the course of a few days the company hosted a special workshop for its unique Interior Advisors, who work from its stores to give Colorama clients and customers a personal touch.

The Interior Advisor's job is to help each client through their own specific design or renovation project, giving them inspiration, mood boards, developing sketches and colour schemes to create a bespoke package to help them achieve the perfect results for each project.
There are different types of advisor on offer too, if the client wants to focus more on interior design and changing the tone of a space through new furniture and interior items then they can see a furnishing specialist. If the client needs help changing surfaces and more specific colour advice then there are specialists in this area too, on hand with the latest information and techniques.

Of course, with colour being such a key part of any interior project, Colorama chose NCS as the perfect place to fine tune the creative minds of their special team of advisors and we look forward to welcoming them back this year as they continue to give their customers quality interior design advice.

As the winter's bite leaves us again and the sun begins to dry our built environment we start to think about giving our houses a good lick of paint. In Sweden alone over 200,000 houses and buildings are getting ready for a new facade colour - NCS Exterior makes sure each exterior colour project only needs to be painted once!

With exterior projects 70% of the job itself lies in the preparation so make sure you get your facade colours spot on this year with NCS Exterior. Developed specially for external colouring and its unique challenges, Exterior is a specific collection of colours that work outside, removing colours which fade or age quickly and taking out colours that become too bright under natural light. NCS Exterior also avoids expensive colours and those which are harmful to our environment. NCS Exterior is separated into colours which are best suited to different applications like window and door frames, painted or plastered surfaces.

For the architect, planner or contractor NCS Exterior is available as part of our Design Tools range, with large individual colour samples to help visualise results to clients. However, right now, those working in the coatings industry can take advantage of a special deal for bulk orders on NCS Exterior fandecks in both matt or textured surface versions.

For larger volumes contact us now to place your order, or buy NCS Exterior Colour Collection from our webshop.