An understanding of colour is a useful life skill for everyone, and critical for anybody making decisions about the use of colour in public realm design, says our Core Team associate Lesley Fallais. Having worked as an artist and designer on many regeneration projects where enabling intelligent use of and informed choices about colour has been a key aspect of her role, she's used her own learning to develop professional training sessions and community engagement workshops. A training package for Loca Creatives is in the making so we asked Lesley for an appetiser. It was so good we've made it a two-parter - come back soon.
As a visual artist working primarily on projects within urban regeneration and with an enduring commitment to sustainable place-making, I've often been shocked at how decisions on something so fundamental as colour are often casually made.
Having found myself drawn into decision making about the use of colour many times, I've made it my mission to learn more about hue, chroma and saturation, and to encourage others to really consider the successful use of colour in community buildings such as libraries, hospitals and schools, in external public spaces, on tower blocks, and on rendered walls and street furniture. For me sustainable place-making and successful public realm design are rooted in the recognition and utilisation of local distinctiveness, leading to a true sense of place. I'm convinced that selecting and using colour in public spaces (along with other key design considerations) has to be set in the context of a unique, contemporary story which records existing local colour, vernacular architecture, landscape and the cultural heritage of a site.
I’ve been lucky to collaborate on a number of significant projects with design professionals who have a real understanding of the use of colour, including designer Jane Revitt who I have seen transform several schools and healthcare environments with an intelligent and considered use of colour. In these contexts colour was used creatively to create an effective healing or learning environment, and to aid navigation around previously bland and institutional looking corridors and spaces. There is also a lot to be learnt from the commercial developers and designers of retail outlets and cafes who give so much attention to how colour affects people and their use of public spaces. If it is important to encourage the public to use, linger and revisit a building or space, theirs is essential thinking.
A few years back, Jane and I collaborated on the design of a series of site-specific artworks for a new community library, with the aim of creatively engaging with local residents and ultimately giving the building some identity which would encourage local people to use and love it. By chance we found ourselves in a meeting which was also making decisions about the building's external colour scheme (not part of our brief). A senior manager, in a laudable effort to include his staff in the building's development, spread out a colour chart and asked his colleagues to ‘choose’ the colours for the exterior window frames, security shutters and doors. I had seen ‘Tenant Choice’ in action many times, where tenants are invited to choose their own colours and finishes for kitchens and bathrooms, and realised in that instant that a similar approach was being used here to make critical decisions about architecture and public space design. Offering Tenant Choice about people's private, domestic interior decor is one thing, but I'm a firm believer that no aspect of public realm design should be ‘chosen’ in a vacuum.
A secondary but equally important concern for me is that genuine, inclusive, engagement with people should be something much more considered, creative and meaningful, always designed to maximise learning opportunities, develop skills and create ways for people to fully participate in the decision making process. Enabling people to make informed decisions seems fundamental, and surely to make informed decisions about colour in public spaces people - whether as professionals or as residents and users - need some knowledge and understanding of colour, light, local distinctiveness and the unique local context?
Back to the library staff... They were clearly not comfortable about being given responsibility for this ‘choice’: “how should I know what colour to paint the doors and windows?” said one. Sitting in that situation a realisation dawned – is this why so many public sector community buildings often look institutional, with poorly designed interior and external colour schemes (no joke if they then fail and close because people don’t want to use them)? We've all seen the navy blue and black security shutters on youth centres, health centres and libraries that when closed at night look like military bunkers and contribute nothing to the urban townscape. If only we could get away from the standard colour chart and from slavishly sticking to institutional brand designs, and make our colour selections site-specific.
In the library meeting, with some trepidation, I stuck my head above the parapet: “you can’t make decisions about colour like this!” Jane and I were immediately challenged to come up with a colour scheme, urgently needed by the contractor for the following Monday morning. As we are trained visual artists and knew the site well we were able to do this. The project team could clearly see the difference in our approach and we believe the results contributed quite significantly to making the building successful.
On a number of other projects I've had the chance to make exploring and learning about colour an integral part of the community engagement process, and have discovered what an empowering and inclusive - not to mention fun - tool it can be in that respect. A couple of my favourite examples follow next time.
Having found myself drawn into decision making about the use of colour many times, I've made it my mission to learn more about hue, chroma and saturation, and to encourage others to really consider the successful use of colour in community buildings such as libraries, hospitals and schools, in external public spaces, on tower blocks, and on rendered walls and street furniture. For me sustainable place-making and successful public realm design are rooted in the recognition and utilisation of local distinctiveness, leading to a true sense of place. I'm convinced that selecting and using colour in public spaces (along with other key design considerations) has to be set in the context of a unique, contemporary story which records existing local colour, vernacular architecture, landscape and the cultural heritage of a site.
I’ve been lucky to collaborate on a number of significant projects with design professionals who have a real understanding of the use of colour, including designer Jane Revitt who I have seen transform several schools and healthcare environments with an intelligent and considered use of colour. In these contexts colour was used creatively to create an effective healing or learning environment, and to aid navigation around previously bland and institutional looking corridors and spaces. There is also a lot to be learnt from the commercial developers and designers of retail outlets and cafes who give so much attention to how colour affects people and their use of public spaces. If it is important to encourage the public to use, linger and revisit a building or space, theirs is essential thinking.
A few years back, Jane and I collaborated on the design of a series of site-specific artworks for a new community library, with the aim of creatively engaging with local residents and ultimately giving the building some identity which would encourage local people to use and love it. By chance we found ourselves in a meeting which was also making decisions about the building's external colour scheme (not part of our brief). A senior manager, in a laudable effort to include his staff in the building's development, spread out a colour chart and asked his colleagues to ‘choose’ the colours for the exterior window frames, security shutters and doors. I had seen ‘Tenant Choice’ in action many times, where tenants are invited to choose their own colours and finishes for kitchens and bathrooms, and realised in that instant that a similar approach was being used here to make critical decisions about architecture and public space design. Offering Tenant Choice about people's private, domestic interior decor is one thing, but I'm a firm believer that no aspect of public realm design should be ‘chosen’ in a vacuum.
A secondary but equally important concern for me is that genuine, inclusive, engagement with people should be something much more considered, creative and meaningful, always designed to maximise learning opportunities, develop skills and create ways for people to fully participate in the decision making process. Enabling people to make informed decisions seems fundamental, and surely to make informed decisions about colour in public spaces people - whether as professionals or as residents and users - need some knowledge and understanding of colour, light, local distinctiveness and the unique local context?
Back to the library staff... They were clearly not comfortable about being given responsibility for this ‘choice’: “how should I know what colour to paint the doors and windows?” said one. Sitting in that situation a realisation dawned – is this why so many public sector community buildings often look institutional, with poorly designed interior and external colour schemes (no joke if they then fail and close because people don’t want to use them)? We've all seen the navy blue and black security shutters on youth centres, health centres and libraries that when closed at night look like military bunkers and contribute nothing to the urban townscape. If only we could get away from the standard colour chart and from slavishly sticking to institutional brand designs, and make our colour selections site-specific.
In the library meeting, with some trepidation, I stuck my head above the parapet: “you can’t make decisions about colour like this!” Jane and I were immediately challenged to come up with a colour scheme, urgently needed by the contractor for the following Monday morning. As we are trained visual artists and knew the site well we were able to do this. The project team could clearly see the difference in our approach and we believe the results contributed quite significantly to making the building successful.
On a number of other projects I've had the chance to make exploring and learning about colour an integral part of the community engagement process, and have discovered what an empowering and inclusive - not to mention fun - tool it can be in that respect. A couple of my favourite examples follow next time.
