the otherness of white

THE “OTHERNESS” OF WHITE

Elements for a Better Understanding and Use of the Colour White in Architecture

JOÃO PERNÃO

jnpernao@fa.utl.pt

CIAUD | Research Centre for Architecture, Urbanism and Design

FATUL | Faculty of Architecture|Technical University|Lisbon|Portugal

WHITEWHITE

WHITEWHITE

This presentation underlines the importance of a deep awareness in the use of the colour WHITE in architecture.

Architects commonly use WHITE as a non-colour, a neutral ground, a blank sheet of paper through which architecture achieves its conceptual rationale.

However, since architecture is experienced by the senses and the intellect, WHITE cannot be considered neutral, neither in aesthetics or perception fields nor in the ergonomic and psycho-physiological concerns for human comfort and well being.

Anthony Gormley “Blind Light”http://www.sportsbabel.net/2007/09/blind-light-2007.htm

The irreplaceable chameleonic role of WHITE in space and time perception, its aesthetic ability to OTHERNESSOTHERNESS, as defined by Adrian Stokes, has to be balanced with its potentially disastrous results in our visual comfort due to its unique capability of light reflection, i.e. the highest luminous reflectance factor of all colours.

The irreplaceable chameleonic role of WHITE in space and time perception, its aesthetic ability to OTHERNESS, as defined by Adrian Stokes, has to be balanced with its potentially disastrous results in our visual comfort due to its unique capability of light reflection, i.e. the highest luminous reflectance factor of all colours.

WHITE must be understood as an exceptional colour with its inherent property of transcending material perception and never used as a result of a lack of conviction or knowledge when choosing the appearance of the architectural materiality.

WHITEOTHERNESS

WHITEOTHERNESS

WHITEOTHERNESS

WHITEOTHERNESS

OTHERNESS could be defined as the inherent property of colour to catch properties of the surrounding environment and transmitting to us something that is beyond the surface. This concept of otherness locates colour in an oneiric and symbolic level. It’s a concept of surface transcendence through colour and could be an important issue bridging architecture and our spiritual inner world.

No other colour could be more adequate to embrace this concept than WHITE, the “cause, the receiver and receptacle for all colours” as described by Leonardo da Vinci. Its unique attributes are also described in Melville´s Moby Dick in the thoughts of Captain Ahab: "not yet have we solved the incantation of this whiteness,

and learn why it appeals with such power to the soul."

WHITE IS NOT

NEUTRAL

WHITE IS NOT

NEUTRAL

SYMBOLISM

Among the eleven basic colour categories in colour naming stated by Berlin and Kay, white and black are the first two to be verbalized in all cultures and civilizations. This obviously has to do with the powerful connection with the circadian cycle: the light-dark, day-night opposition that rules human existence.

But also with

ColdnessDeathSterilityEmptiness

It is commonly associated with

Innocence Peace Purity

Truth

WHITE has contradictory meanings in colour symbolism

SIMBOLISM

According to this idea of dualism, Melville after describing the good things associated with white, state:

"… yet for all these accumulated associations, with whatever is sweet, and honourable, and sublime, there yet lurks an elusive something in the innermost idea of this hue, which strikes more of panic to the soul than the redness which affrights in blood".

WHITE is definitely not a neutral colour is definitely not a neutral colour concerning symbolism.

WHITE GOODNESS

BLACK EVIL

http://spacecollective.org

http://blogs.nyu.edu/residential.education/residence.halls/university.hall/fun_facts_contests/

WHITE DEATHMoby Dick

Pure and bright WHITE IS NOT FROM THIS WORLD

http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-festivals/poltergeist-prime-tech/

Pure WHITE is an aesthetical myth, not an earthly element. Therefore the sense of immateriality conveyed through white colour can lead us to spiritual transcendence.

Pure WHITE is an aesthetical myth, not an earthly element. Therefore the sense of immateriality conveyed through white colour can lead us to spiritual transcendence.

Pure WHITE is an aesthetical myth, not an earthly element. Therefore the sense of immateriality conveyed through white colour can lead us to spiritual transcendence.

Pure WHITE is an aesthetical myth, not an earthly element. Therefore the sense of immateriality conveyed through white colour can lead us to spiritual transcendence.

Pure WHITE is an aesthetical myth, not an earthly element. Therefore the sense of immateriality conveyed through white colour can lead us to spiritual transcendence.

Pure WHITE is an aesthetical myth, not an earthly element. Therefore the sense of immateriality conveyed through white colour can lead us to spiritual transcendence.

WHITE IS NOT NEUTRAL

WHITE IS NOT NEUTRAL

ERGONOMY

WHITE should not be choose as the main colour in an environment where people will remain for long periods, for instance classrooms, offices, etc. It is not a question of aesthetics but just ergonomic concerns, and that should not be questionable.

WHITE having the highest luminous reflectance factor of all colours, when accompanied by high levels of natural or artificial light easily produces glare and that is inimical not only to clear vision but to physical, mental, and emotional comfort.

Physiologically, these environments could be damaging to the human eye, demanding fatiguing action of the eye muscles by severely constricting the pupil opening. All this negative effects could be amplified by the use of gloss or semi-gloss finishes in the visual field, as well as the incorrect layout of the light sources.

To counteract the excessive glare of white painted walls in working areas we must reduce the lightness of those surfaces. The luminous reflectance factor recommended for those environments should be about 40% to 60% according to several studies.

White commonly used in wall paintings (not pure white) have around 5% of blackness that corresponds to a luminous reflectance factor of 86%. This value is far from the desired visual comfort needed in these situations. The medium desirable factor of 50% is achieved with a hue with 25% of blackness.

Adopting these recommendations and thus removing the glare of walls can correct many situations of lack of concentration and eyestrain complaints in work environments.

PSYCHOLOGY, FASHION AND PRECONCEPTION

On a psychological basis, we can say that WHITE is sterile, cold, empty, and mostly of the times it causes a boring disinterest. In fact, the most stressing environments, unfortunately used in some extreme police and military interrogations, are white painted in all surfaces and with high levels of illumination.

Aesthetically however, following a reaction to over-ornamentation and over-use of colour in the cultural environment of the 60’s; the connotation of high-tech image with achromatic environments due to the idea that it will reflect the clean, efficient and somehow impersonal way of living in the future; and finally the misunderstood meaning of Minimalism, led some architects to design bright white unemotional and cold spaces completely inadequate for the normal, organic and ergonomic acts of human quotidian life.

The problem is not white, but generalized white, because generalized white – whiteness – is abstract.

http://www.collativelearning.com/2001%20chapter%205.html

WHITETORTURE

WHITETORTURE

In an Amnesty International report in 2004 there were documented evidence of "white torture" on Amir Abbas Fakhravar, by the revolutionary guards.

According to the report, which called his case the first known example of white torture in Iran, claimed that "his cells had no windows, and the walls and his clothes were white. His meals consisted of white rice on white plates.”

White torture causes sensory deprivation and extreme isolation.

“Amnesty International has constructed a highly realistic life size replica of the Guantanamo cell where Australian David Hicks has been languishing for five years.”

http://www.mediavr.com/hicks.htm

“British architect John Pawson is a master of minimalism... His house in London, a Zen like living space, has been reduced to its essence, as close to perfect as possible... The natural light and the empty space seem to communicate more than the space that is filled up with something.

http://minimalissimo.com/2010/02/john-pawsons-private-residence/

http://themanofstyle.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/designer-spotlight-john-pawson-and-hans-wegner/

WHITE AESTHETIC

VALUE

WHITE AESTHETIC

VALUE

“British architect John Pawson is a master of minimalism... His house in London, a Zen like living space, has been reduced to its essence, as close to perfect as possible... The natural light and the empty space seem to communicate more than the space that is filled up with something.”

http://minimalissimo.com/2010/02/john-pawsons-private-residence/

http://themanofstyle.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/designer-spotlight-john-pawson-and-hans-wegner/

Stanley Kubrik opens the Pandora Box of the “white future” aesthetic in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

But MGM advertising stays in the 60’s

http://www.brandish.tv

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WHITE AS

REFERENCE

WHITE AS

REFERENCE

WHITE AS REFERENCE

WHITE is like an anchor, a reference for the other colours to present themselves, to be compared with. Even when we calibrate colour images we first try to balance the “White Point”

WHITE is the colour where the reflections from all other colours in the environment are best received and revealed. The result for this unique characteristic is that when surrounded by other colours white will be tinged by them and would never look white. But although white has this chameleonic characteristic it will remain the colour reference for all colours in our visual field and therefore the main reference in the Colour Constancy phenomenon.

If carefully designed, a white environment can be painted by colour reflections in a dynamic journey during daylight, giving us time awareness.

WHITE chameleonic characteristic

When drawing in black over white paper, we tend to imagine WHITE as the colour of the latent presence of the volumes

When drawing over grey paper, we can use WHITE as colour, to accentuate certain surfaces. This way we use WHITE as an aesthetic intentional feature, not as default.

This is a metaphor for what should be our goal when using WHITE : a precise intention and a strong aesthetic intent. Never a no-choice, representing a lack of intentionality.

CONCLUSIONS

1. WHITEWHITE is not a neutral colour in terms of perception, it is a strong statement in space with ergonomic, physiological, historical, cultural and symbolic meanings, and therefore should not be used in a generalized and uneducated way.

2. Architecture should bring to its users both the sense of otherness and transcendence of things but also a sense of comfort, of materiality, of belonging. WHITEWHITE colour could be used to transmit that balance between spirituality and materiality that represents the realm of the discipline of architecture.

3. There are reasons and rules for the use of WHITEWHITE and the other colours in architecture, reasons that cross several fields of knowledge. We know that apart all this rationale behind the colour use in architecture, there are concepts that belong to the aesthetical field that could never be fully transmitted (to fall into colour is to run out of wordsto fall into colour is to run out of words*), but those concepts should never overlap nor put in question the comfort of the never overlap nor put in question the comfort of the human being for which architecture was conceivedhuman being for which architecture was conceived. .

*Julia Kristeva

CONCLUSIONS

1. WHITEWHITE is not a neutral colour in terms of perception, it is a strong statement in space with ergonomic, physiological, historical, cultural and symbolic meanings, and therefore should not be used in a generalized and uneducated way.

2. Architecture should bring to its users both the sense of otherness and transcendence of things but also a sense of comfort, of materiality, of belonging. WHITEWHITE colour could be used to transmit that balance between spirituality and materiality that represents the realm of the discipline of architecture.

3. There are reasons and rules for the use of WHITEWHITE and the other colours in architecture, reasons that cross several fields of knowledge. We know that apart all this rationale behind the colour use in architecture, there are concepts that belong to the aesthetical field that could never be fully transmitted (to fall into colour is to run out of wordsto fall into colour is to run out of words*), but those concepts should never overlap nor put in question the comfort of the never overlap nor put in question the comfort of the human being for which architecture was conceivedhuman being for which architecture was conceived. .

*Julia Kristeva http

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WHITEWHITE

THE “OTHERNESS” OF WHITE

Elements for a Better Understanding and Use of the Colour White in

Architecture

JOÃO PERNÃO

CIAUD | Research Centre for Architecture, Urbanism and Design

FATUL | Faculty of Architecture|Technical University|Lisbon|Portugal