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Chromophobia: Colour in Architecture
Join a panel of designers, architects, artists and scientists to explore the influence of colour on our physical environment.
What to expect
A rejection of colour has come to characterise the aesthetic of modern architecture. White and monochromatic tones are often seen as the antithesis of purity, honesty and authenticity. Colour by contrast tends to be regarded as imposing, distracting and excessive.
In his book ‘Chromophobia’ (fear of colour), the artist David Batchelor argues that colour has been the object of extreme prejudice in Western architecture. In his view, it is colour’s unpredictable nature and ability to contaminate and corrupt that we fear the most. And to overcome this fear, we try to control colour by limiting its use, or disregarding it altogether.
What are our other motivations behind chromophobia? What is the social and cultural significance of our fixation with white? And how has architecture’s relationship to colour affected our understanding of the world?
This talk brings together practitioners and academics across the field of art, design, architecture and science to discuss these questions in the round.
The event coincides with the Design Museum exhibition ‘Breathing Colour by Hella Jongerius’.
Image credit | Courtesy of Space Popular
Image credit | Courtesy of Space Popular
Image credit | Courtesy of Space Popular
Image credit | Courtesy of Space Popular
Image credit | Courtesy of Space Popular
Image credit | Courtesy of Space Popular
David Kohn. Photographer credit: Will Pryce
David Kohn. Photographer credit: Will Pryce
David Kohn. Photographer credit: Will Pryce
David Kohn. Photographer credit: Will Pryce
Book online
SPEAKERS
Shumi Bose
Shumi Bose is a teacher, curator and editor based in London. She is a senior lecturer in Contextual Studies for BA Architecture at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, and teaches History and Theory Studies at the Architectural Association. She also works as a Curator of Exhibitions at the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg
Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg are graduates founded Space Popular in Bangkok in 2012. Their design and research studio Tools for Architecture investigates topics such as masonry structures, space of political debate, renewable materials and virtual architecture. In 2016 they launched Tools for Architecture, a module at the Architecture Association.
David Batchelor
David Batchelor is a London-based artist and writer whose work of the last two decades is principally concerned with the experience of colour in the modern city.
Related exhibition
Background image | Coloured vases series 3, oranges-®Gerrit_Schreurs