Last time Lesley Fallais made a heartfelt plea for an educated and informed approach in any situation where decisions about colour will have an impact on the public realm. Three lovely project examples from her portfolio illustrate how exploring colour and teaching basic colour theory can be a great community engagement device and lead to well considered, locally distinctive design outcomes.
The aforementioned library incident and my work on other projects have convinced me of the importance and value of 'colour education' in any design or community involvement situation which impacts on the public realm or streetscape. And as I've got more interested in working with colour and colour theory in my design work with people, I've also discovered what a powerful focus they offer for inclusive, accessible community engagement and tenant involvement activities generally.
For Refresh Berry Brow (with Kirklees Council and Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing), Jane Revitt and I teamed up with Impossible Theatre and its amazing ChromaVan to work with residents on developing a colour scheme for the repainting of the external render on two tower blocks. It's a useful case study in how a well planned, imaginatively and accessibly delivered creative engagement process around colour choices can support tenant involvement objectives as well as good public realm design. As KNH's Estate Management Officer said several years on: "Refresh Berry Brow created an impetus in the local community and local services to continue the good work that was done. This meant people wanting to be more involved in determining other projects for their community and deciding what these should be, how they should be created and how they should be managed."
Ravensthorpe in Colour (also for Kirklees Council) was a creative community engagement project which informed the design of a site-specific artwork by Jane and Andy Plant for a new Library, Information and Children’s Centre. It illustrates well how the idea of people exploring and recording colour can provide a really strong, fun engagement hook through which to connect with many local residents of all ages. In the words of a Library Service manager: "The simplicity and accessibility of the colour theme made it easy for people to take part. The project succeeded in creating a feeling of inclusion and shared involvement."
A third project brings the themes of public realm design, tenant involvement and informed decision making nicely together. On an estate undergoing a massive housing renewal programme where new homes were being built and five ‘retained' streets of old social housing were being refurbished, critical decisions on colour had to be made. Residents in the retained area had said they wanted to keep the existing grey render but this was clearly going to leave the old properties looking monotone and institutionalised against the adjacent new-build ones. I was pleased to be asked to work with Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing staff and other members of a creative project team to involve local people in the development of a colour scheme. As I introduced myself to residents I repeatedly heard “we don’t want it to look like Balamory” - people feared that using colour meant bright, vivid colours that would be totally inappropriate to the location. At the other extreme, I'd seen housing renewal areas where over-cautious choices had resulted in the whole estate being painted white and cream, re-creating the same overwhelming visual monotony and lack of character it had started with. For the retained streets we needed to find a path between the two extremes, create a scheme that was locally appropriate and distinctive, and carry people with us.
With our residents we set about recorded existing local colour, including the colours of the roof slates, local stone and in the surrounding natural environment - lots of rich possibilities for workshops and on-the-street activities there. We considered the layout of the streets and various site lines before mixing paint samples and testing them full scale, in daylight, on the side of some properties. Then we drew up a considered, street by street, block by block colour layout and presented it to the community. Having been through a creative, accessible engagement process residents were no longer fearful of using rich, saturated colours and they didn’t insist on their homes being painted cream. They could clearly see the rationale behind the selection of colours and very readily supported the proposed colour scheme. In this way we were able to challenge the preference for a 'safe', uniform look and visually link the retained properties with both the new housing and the surrounding natural woodland. The result was a striking, well considered and popular transformation of the five streets, and residents who understood, owned and supported the process we'd been through to get there.
I now regularly deliver colour based workshops and professional training, accessible to anyone of any age and useful to people who make decisions about colour in public spaces – architects, NHS professionals and public sector managers have been amongst recent participants. I'm currently developing a colour training package for Loca Creatives that can be tailored to community groups or professionals. I’d encourage everyone to talk a closer look at colour, its use in public spaces and its effects. Some basic colour knowledge goes a long way - in fact I'd say it’s a basic life skill, whether you're selecting a tie to go with your shirt or a cushion to give punch to your interior colour scheme, or are aiming to create the right mood and visual environment for a public space.
For Refresh Berry Brow (with Kirklees Council and Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing), Jane Revitt and I teamed up with Impossible Theatre and its amazing ChromaVan to work with residents on developing a colour scheme for the repainting of the external render on two tower blocks. It's a useful case study in how a well planned, imaginatively and accessibly delivered creative engagement process around colour choices can support tenant involvement objectives as well as good public realm design. As KNH's Estate Management Officer said several years on: "Refresh Berry Brow created an impetus in the local community and local services to continue the good work that was done. This meant people wanting to be more involved in determining other projects for their community and deciding what these should be, how they should be created and how they should be managed."
Ravensthorpe in Colour (also for Kirklees Council) was a creative community engagement project which informed the design of a site-specific artwork by Jane and Andy Plant for a new Library, Information and Children’s Centre. It illustrates well how the idea of people exploring and recording colour can provide a really strong, fun engagement hook through which to connect with many local residents of all ages. In the words of a Library Service manager: "The simplicity and accessibility of the colour theme made it easy for people to take part. The project succeeded in creating a feeling of inclusion and shared involvement."
A third project brings the themes of public realm design, tenant involvement and informed decision making nicely together. On an estate undergoing a massive housing renewal programme where new homes were being built and five ‘retained' streets of old social housing were being refurbished, critical decisions on colour had to be made. Residents in the retained area had said they wanted to keep the existing grey render but this was clearly going to leave the old properties looking monotone and institutionalised against the adjacent new-build ones. I was pleased to be asked to work with Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing staff and other members of a creative project team to involve local people in the development of a colour scheme. As I introduced myself to residents I repeatedly heard “we don’t want it to look like Balamory” - people feared that using colour meant bright, vivid colours that would be totally inappropriate to the location. At the other extreme, I'd seen housing renewal areas where over-cautious choices had resulted in the whole estate being painted white and cream, re-creating the same overwhelming visual monotony and lack of character it had started with. For the retained streets we needed to find a path between the two extremes, create a scheme that was locally appropriate and distinctive, and carry people with us.
With our residents we set about recorded existing local colour, including the colours of the roof slates, local stone and in the surrounding natural environment - lots of rich possibilities for workshops and on-the-street activities there. We considered the layout of the streets and various site lines before mixing paint samples and testing them full scale, in daylight, on the side of some properties. Then we drew up a considered, street by street, block by block colour layout and presented it to the community. Having been through a creative, accessible engagement process residents were no longer fearful of using rich, saturated colours and they didn’t insist on their homes being painted cream. They could clearly see the rationale behind the selection of colours and very readily supported the proposed colour scheme. In this way we were able to challenge the preference for a 'safe', uniform look and visually link the retained properties with both the new housing and the surrounding natural woodland. The result was a striking, well considered and popular transformation of the five streets, and residents who understood, owned and supported the process we'd been through to get there.
I now regularly deliver colour based workshops and professional training, accessible to anyone of any age and useful to people who make decisions about colour in public spaces – architects, NHS professionals and public sector managers have been amongst recent participants. I'm currently developing a colour training package for Loca Creatives that can be tailored to community groups or professionals. I’d encourage everyone to talk a closer look at colour, its use in public spaces and its effects. Some basic colour knowledge goes a long way - in fact I'd say it’s a basic life skill, whether you're selecting a tie to go with your shirt or a cushion to give punch to your interior colour scheme, or are aiming to create the right mood and visual environment for a public space.
