in colour

Emotive architecture

Luis Barragán

Chloé EerselDelft University of Technology

January 2016

iii

Abstract

Colour is a very powerful design tool that is not often used by architects. Most buildings

around us have very monochrome or neutral palettes. With colour emotions can be

evoked and architects could have an impact on people’s lives. An architect that dared to

use bold colours in his emotive architecture was Luis Barragán. In his architecture, colour

was one of the fundamental components. The theories of Johannes Itten and Wassily

Kandinksy show that determining how colour is perceived is a very complex issue.

Colours are perceived through different psychological layers making colour-emotion

association different for everyone. Using symbolic, expressive and impressive effects of

colour, three projects of Luis Barragán are analysed on the topic of how these colour

effects can help evoke emotion in the built environment. In the Chapel de las Madres

Capuchinas, the symbolic use of colour can be seen. The impressive effect of colour can

be seen in Los Clubes. Casa Gilardi shows a sequence of different harmonies playing

with the different expressions of colour. Impressive colour use is found to be the most

universal as it relies on the biology of humans. Symbolic use of colour is already more

specific and its perception depends mainly on culture. Expressive colour use is based on

personal preference and is different for everyone.

Keywords: colour psychology, Luis Barragán, emotive architecture, colour theory, colour

perception, colour-emotion asscoiation

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Table of contents

Abstract iii

List of figures v

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Omission of colour 1

1.2 Colour and emotion 1

1.3 Luis Barragán 2

1.4 The three problems of colour 2

2. On architecture - Heritage, nostalgia and emotion 3

2.1 Heritage 3

2.2 Nostalgia 4

2.3 Emotion 4

3. On colour psychology - The colour experience pyramid 6

3.1 The psychological layers of colour 6

3.2 Personal preference 7

4. Symbolism in colour - Chapel de las Madres Capuchinas Sacrametarias del Purisímo 7

Corazón de María

4.1 Origins of symbolism 7

4.2 The yellow chapel 8

4.3 Lightness of yellow 9

4.4 Yellow in Christianity 10

5. Warm-cool contrast - Los Clubes 11

5.1 Playing with the senses 11

5.2 Los Clubes 11

5.3 Relativity of colour temperature 12

5.4 Combining contrasts 14

5.5 Another world 14

6. Colour harmony - Casa Gilardi 14

6.1 House of harmonies 14

6.2 Contrasting harmony 15

6.3 Harmonic quantity 16

6.4 Related harmony 17

6.4 Subjective subject 17

7. Conclusion 18

Notes 20

Bibliography 22

v

List of figures

Figure 1 Luis Barragán, ChapeloflasMadresCapuchinasSacramentaries9delPurísimoCorazóndeMaría. 1953.

Figure 2 Luis Barragán, LaCuadraSanCristóbal. 1964-1969. 13

Figure 3 Luis Barragán, Gilardipool. 1975-1977. 15

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1 Introduction

1.1 Omission of colour

Colour is a very strong design tool. It can evoke emotion and one might even say

manipulate people. Though, when we think of great architecture the projects that come to

our minds often have a very monochrome or neutral palette. If architects want to affect

people’s lives it seems quite strange that colour is not a tool that is used more often.

In the Renaissance, art’s emphasis lied on harmony and proportion. Form was primary

and colour only secondary. This tradition of disegno over colore dates even further back to

antiquity, to Aristotle for who the base of art was line.1 Other aspects, including colour,

were just ornament. As colour was secondary it was regarded a problem. This had two

sides to it. On one hand colour was often associated with negative themes like infantilism,

vulgarism, or primitiveness. Secondly, colour was seen as superficial, supplementary or

even trivial. This hierarchy of line over colour was also affirmed by nineteenth-century

colour theorist Charles Blanc. He admitted to the fact that art could not be produced

without using colour. But since we cannot avoid colour it should be controlled he

believed. This attitude towards colour is something we can still see in today’s

architecture.

1.2 Colour and emotion

It has never been denied that colour can have an effect on our psyche or even our

emotions. This brings us to the topic of colour and emotion. How can colour influence

one’s emotions in an architectural environment? In Interactionofcolor, Josef Albers

describes colour as “the most relative medium of art”. 2 This has different causes, the first

being that no colour stands on its own. Colours are always surrounded by other colours

which influence the appearance; the colours will interact with each other. Secondly, even

though colour has the same projection on different people’s retinas, the perception will

always be different. This has to do with the fact that there is always a difference between

the physical state and psychic effect that colours have on us. Maybe we could say that

interaction between colours is exactly that what arouses our emotions. If the whole world

would be the same shade of blue we would perceive this as very normal and neutral.

Without any difference or contrast everything would just appear the same to us hence not

having any psychological effect. But is this still true if would look at the work of Yves Klein

who solely used blue in his monochrome paintings? 3 Some would not agree that his

paintings do not evoke any kind of emotion.

2

One architect that was friends with Josef Albers and so influenced by his theories on

colour was Carlo Scarpa. Scarpa used colour briefly in his projects that are mainly known

for the quality of detailing. Two projects of him of which it is known that he was influenced

by Albers are the Fondazione Querini Stampalia and Castelvecchio in Verona. In the first

he used schemes similar to Albers’ work in the tiling of the lobby floor. The second work

of Scarpa where he used colour as a design tool is the wall of the cubic gallery of

Castelvecchio where different colour nuances are to create a pattern of small cubes

which together form larger cubes. Still, these uses of colour are too brief and subtle to

investigate further upon colour and the emotions these could evoke. Another architect

that was influenced by Albers in some of his works is the Mexican architect Luis Barragán.

He used colour very boldly and daringly in his architecture.

1.3 Luis Barragán

Luis Barragán (1902-1988) was a Mexican architect, originally from Guadalajara. He grew

up between the ranches of his family and their residence in the city. In the beginning of

his career he analysed the heritage of Mexican culture, focusing on both pre-Columbian

and Spanish culture. With this he tried to find true Mexican architecture. Being influenced

by the Spanish style, he made a trip to Europe where he mainly visited Spain. His first

dwellings really show this Hispanic influence.

During Barragán’s second trip to Europe he came into contact with modernism. After

meeting Le Corbusier, Barragán analysed his book Versunearchitecturein which he

agreed on the idea of the poetic and emotional dimension of architecture created with

light, shadow, the wall and the space. Still, Barragán can be seen as a more humanistic

architect than Le Corbusier. Le Corbusier strongly believed in the ideas of modernism and

purism. Barragán criticised the idea of architecture as a machine and was keener on the

ideas of beauty and harmony. He believed that no artificial material could grab the main

aspect that is beauty. Walls should interact with its surroundings and nature rather than

being a stand-alone object. This also set him apart from the Mexican modernists, who’s

most prominent figure was Juan O’Gorman. When looking at Barragán’s works from the

period after his second trip to Europe one can most definitely see the modernist

influence. The houses he built during this time seem quite minimalistic compared to his

earlier works and are characterised by their lack of colour. Although not practicing

modernism later in his career he took away the element of using planes as generators of

space.

After his slightly modernist years Barragán somewhat lost his faith in architecture and

decided to devote himself to the design of gardens. In these years, he reflected on his

own work and started developing his own architectural style he is still known for today.

3

The architecture of Luis Barragán shows a clear evolution over time. His architecture has

evolved from his idea of Mexican architecture, to a more modernistic style and finally to

his own unique style he is known for by many. Since the subject there is written on is

colour, this thesis will mainly focus on the works of the second part of his career in which

he has used colour more widely and boldly.

1.4 The three problems of colour

In Theartofcolor Johannes Itten describes three different aesthetic problems of colour,

being the optical or impressive problem, the psychic or expressive problem and the

symbolic or constructive problem. With all three problems certain emotions can be

evoked. Using these three problems three projects of Barragán will be analysed in this

thesis. The Chapel of las Madres Capuchinas in Tlalpan is a chapel where golden yellow

colours are used to create a divine atmosphere. This shows use of colour for its symbolic

meaning. In Los Clubes a warm colour palette is used, which makes the building contrast

very much with the blue and green of the sky and trees around it. This results in the

optical effect of a warm-cool contrast. The third project that will be analysed is the Gilardi

house. With a colour palette that has many different hues there are spaces created with

different colour harmonies. By comparing the outcomes of these three analyses there

can be determined what effect the aesthetic problems of colour have on our state of

emotion.

2 On architecture - Heritage, nostalgia and emotion

2.1 Heritage

Luis Barragán was formed very much by his early years spent between the city of

Guadalajara and his family’s ranches in Corrales. Trips to villages in the Michoacán state

near his family ranch ignited a love for architecture and the will to combine traditional

and modern style. He wanted to apply the meaning of traditional architecture to modern

buildings. In his opinion, the Michoacán region had the nicest traditional architecture. He

started collecting photographs of Mexican villages. In search of the indigenous pre-

Columbian style he found an interest in colour and texture. Colour forms an important

part of Mexican culture. It can be found everywhere; in the architecture and folklore

dressings, but also in nature, like the flowers, fruits and birds. The traditional Mexican

architecture widely uses colour in the pueblos, churches and monasteries. In Mexico,

colour can be seen as an expression of tradition.

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In his work Barragán was heavily influenced by his friend and Mexican artist Jésus

Chucho Reyes. Reyes was a painter and art collector who combined indigenous folk and

Spanish baroque in what he believed to be Mexican art. Reyes taught Barragán that

colour could be used to change and spark joy in the daily lives of people. In 1924,

Barragán made his first trip to Europe and in Spain he tried to find the origin of the

Hispanic style. This is when he started to use touches of colour in his work. At this time,

he only used colour carefully and sparingly.

As always being in search of true Mexican architecture, that was according to him

modern architecture and architecture that represents traditional culture, heritage was

very important for Barragán. Throughout his career he has always referenced back to his

own origin. In his Pritzker prize acceptance speech, Barragán talked about his

architecture as being autobiographical.

2.2 Nostalgia

According to Barragán nostalgia was “the poetic awareness of our personal past”.4 An

artist’s past was the root of an artist’s creative future; the artist should treasure the

discoveries from his past. In his work, Barragán tried to implement the magical memories

and feelings of his childhood into his architecture. He tried to create a space where one

could feel at home, just as one feels at home at the place where he grew up. This space

often was a world that was separated from the outside world. The façade was a severe

barrier between two distant worlds. The interior of the façade was to be an agreeable

world to live in. This other world could be an escape from reality. With this idea of closing

yourself off also comes solitude, as the inhabitants are detached from the world outside.

Still, with this detachment a feeling of serenity can be generated.

2.3 Emotion

Serenity, joy and harmony were emotions Barragán often talked about. These feelings he

wanted to evoke in order to create an agreeable living. The definition of emotion is hard

to grasp as it is anytime anywhere. In Color,environment&humanresponse Mahnke writes

that “Emotions are to a great extent unconscious processes which cannot be classified to

show a logical plan that links various parts together”.5 When Barragán talked about the

emotions he wanted to incite with his architecture, he mainly focussed on the positive

emotions. This seems quite logical as it would seem strange if an architect’s goal was to

provoke negative emotions in people. Barragán wanted to create “houses that smile,

even in rain”.6

Wassily Kandinsky believed that with abstraction inner feelings could be ignited. He

dismissed sculpture and favoured painting because this took away a dimension and

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made his work more abstract. Architecture is of course an art of three dimensions since it

is a three-dimensional world we live in. Still the abstraction of the planes of Barragán’s

architecture result in, one could say, very abstract compositions which might help ignite

these inner feelings resulting in emotive architecture.

Colour was a fundamental part of Barragán’s emotive architecture. He used colour to

create an atmosphere and evoke emotion. He believed that colour could activate the

senses with which an aesthetic experience of pleasure could be effectuated. If one could

lend his senses to beauty, transformation or change of state of mind was inescapable.

Buildings that held the message of both beauty and emotion were what formed the

difference between architecture and engineering.

When we look at art from all different times we see that the colours that are most used

are the colours that are at hand. The oldest languages first had words for just black and

white, sometimes for red and after that for yellow and green. This was because these

colours actually were the colours that were easiest to be found in nature. If we look at the

architecture of Barragán of course there was no problem with finding colour as in modern

age every shade of the rainbow can be produced. But when looking at his architecture

we can see a colour palette that consists of colours that were at hand in Mexico. Those

are the colours of Mexican culture. The Mexican shades of pink, yellow and blue are

exactly the colours that Barragán used in his architecture.

The colour palettes Barragán used were to provoke the visual impression of well-being,

of being at peace and in harmony. Harmony is also defined in terms of colour by

Johannes Itten. When diving deeper into Itten’s theory of colour we see that colour

harmony is in fact when colours combined together form a neutral grey. Though barely

any of the spaces Barragán created have this grey hue. Did Barragán want to make

people feel harmonious or even neutral? That does not seem likely when one’s goal is to

create emotive architecture. Evoking emotion might seem more like getting someone off

balance, out of their neutral state. So, this idea of creating harmony might not be true

even though Barragán said he opted for that himself. If there is no grey in Barragán’s

architecture, did he actually want to create colour palettes that were out of balance,

making people restless when perceived? Maybe this actually helped with evoking the

emotions in people. And maybe the conventional grey architecture as we know it from

our many concrete and steel buildings is what makes us feel in harmony and at peace.

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3 On colour psychology - The colour experience pyramid

3.1 The psychological layers of colour

Mahnke describes that colour has psychological effects on us through different layers.

This he explains with the colour experience pyramid. He makes a distinction between six

different layers. He starts with the most generic layer and ends with the most specific and

personal layer.

The deepest layer is that of the biological reactions to a colour stimulus. These reactions

are dependent on the evolution of plants, animals and humans. The way colour triggers

these biological reactions are a matter of survival. They help us see threat or fertility and

make a distinction between edible and inedible foods. Biological reactions on colour are

part of our evolutionary heritage and lie beyond our control.

Slightly more specific is the layer of the collective unconscious. This is based on the

knowledge stored in our genetics. Compared to the biological layer this is not what is our

evolutionary heritage but more what is our ancestral heritage. They are primordial

images that are already nested in the brain before birth. If humans would not have this

initial information stored in their brains the world would be too overwhelming with

sensations of things of which we would not know what to do with it.

Now we have reached the conscious layers of the pyramid. The deepest layer of this part

is that of the conscious symbolism or associations. These are meanings that are common

through different cultures and regions. They are symbolic but without a specific cultural

motivation and have a constant meaning over time.

The layer of cultural influences and mannerisms is very much related to that of the

previous layer as it also has to do with associations and symbolism. The difference is

here that these characteristics are specific to culture. Here colour meanings that are

dependent on culture or region can be found.7

Influence of trends, fashion and styles is a layer where time becomes involved. The

preference for colour that finds their origin in this layer changes every few years. This

layer evolves around the idea of the zeitgeist; the colour trend now is different from what

it used to be and from what it will be. Applications of these colour choices can mainly be

found in fashion and consumer goods and less in architecture since this has to last more

than just a few years.

The upper layer is that of the personal relationship with colours. This is the most

subjective layer as it has to do with personal experience. In this layer we can find

7

personal preference for colour and also colour associations based on own experience.

This layer is very much dependent on all the deeper layers as these eventually define a

person’s view on colour.

3.2 Personal preference

Itten writes about an interesting experiment he did with his students. What he saw is that

the different people preferred a colour palette that had the same characteristics as their

own presence. One could easily say that this is caused by the top layer of the colour

experience pyramid; that of the personal relationship with colours. But this does also lie

deeper as instinctively we are drawn towards creatures that have a similar appearance.

This would suggest influence of biological reactions. Since our physical features depend

on genetics it would also be plausible that we have a preference for certain colours due

to our collective unconscious that is based on our ancestors who we probably resemble.

Emotions can be evoked on all different levels and will differ per person mainly because

of the upper layers. The top layers are hard to describe when it comes to emotion since

these are so specific per person. Eventually, the emotions that colours evoke are

influenced by the combination of all different layers. This will result in the fact that the

emotive effect of colour is different for each person. Still the deeper layers could be used

as common features.

4 Symbolism in colour - Chapel of las Madres

Capuchinas Sacrametarias del Purisímo Corazón de

María

4.1 Origins of symbolism

Many of the symbolic uses of colour find their origin in nature or history. Where the first is

often similar around the world the latter is mainly based on the culture of the region. Red

is an example of natural origin that symbolises very similar themes in different cultures.

As red is the colour of blood it often symbolises life and love, but also war and revolution.

Because it has an arousing effect on most people regardless of origin it also symbolises

warmth, passion and eroticism. Also green finds a lot of its symbolic meaning in nature.

Green is associated with fresh vegetation and spring. This is why in the Western world we

associate green with rebirth, hope and the young. But in Islamic culture green has no

natural symbolic origin. Here green stands for holy, as it is associated with the green

garment of the prophet Mohammed. An example of non-natural colour symbolism in

8

Western culture is the colour blue which often is associated with nobility. For a long time

blue was the most expensive pigment. Production of ultramarine was complicated; an

alchemist needed great skill to produce it. The price of ultramarine was more than its

weight in gold.8 So it was just for the very rich, which often where the noble, who could

afford this. This also is where the term royal blue comes from. Symbolism of the colour

yellow is what Barragán has used in the design of the Chapel of las Madres Capuchinas.

4.2 The yellow chapel

In 1953, Barragán designed and built the Chapel of las Madres Capuchinas in Tlalpan,

Mexico. In the design for the chapel the materials used by Barragán were light and

colour. From the streets one would have no clue of the chapel being there. The façade

forms the boundary before entering a different world. When entering, one first encounters

a courtyard. The courtyard has high white walls moving up towards the sky with a cross

embossed in one of the walls. One looks from the skylight up above down to the fountain

which with its black colour works as a mirror reflecting the yellow grid of the corridor.

From the courtyard one can enter the main chapel. In the chapel there is yellow light

coming from the alcove which is not visible from the nave. The light coming through the

yellow-stained glass works as a halo landing on the interior elements producing different

tints of yellow. The yellow light resembles holy light resulting in a religious atmosphere.

The altar forms the heart of it all combining the characteristics of both the yellow and

light in its golden appearance.

9

Fig. 1. Luis Barragán, ChapeloflasMadresCapuchinasSacramentariesdelPurísimoCorazóndeMaría. 1953. From: Antonio Martínez. LuisBarragán:Mexico'sModernMaster,1902-1988.

Monacelli Press, 1996.

4.3 Lightness of yellow

It is not for the actual colour of yellow but more because yellow is the lightest colour of

the spectrum that Barragán has used yellow as the main colour of the chapel. When we

see yellow that interacts with other colours apart from white, which is even lighter, it looks

as if it beams. Itten describes this phenomenon wherein forms in light colours appear

bigger on a dark background, while forms in dark colours appear smaller on a light

background. Kandinsky also describes this stating that light colours work ex-centrically,

they radiate and spread over their boundaries, while dark colours work con-centrically,

they work inward. Kandinsky believed that yellow and blue were poles, as yellow is the

lightest colour that exists and blue the darkest. Maybe you could ask yourself why

Kandinsky would describe yellow and blue as two opposites since violet is both darker

and the complementary colour of yellow. This probably has to do with the fact that

yellow and blue together form green, the most restful or harmonic colour of which yellow

and blue are the extremes.9 Light and dark are also described as poles by Johannes

Itten. He compares the lightness of different hues also concluding that yellow is the

lightest colour. When making a composition with different colours of the same lightness

that contains yellow, one will have to lighten the other colours in the composition.

Reversed, most pure hues should be darkened to get to the same darkness as blue.

10

Goethe created a scale in which different colours have a lightness value. In this scale

yellow has a lightness value of nine, whereas blue only has a value of four and violet

even a three. Yellow equals lightness.

If Barragán wanted the chapel to appear light and luminous the question remains why he

did choose yellow over white as it is even lighter. White definitely was the colour of

preference of his modern colleagues like Le Corbusier and Adolf Loos. They chose white

because it symbolises purity and cleanliness. Ornament, colour and clutter would

degenerate architecture that was supposed to be pure. Le Corbusier tried to convince

society that white was the best colour option for architecture. In Thedecorativeartoftoday he wrote that “Every citizen is required to replace his hangings, his damasks, his wall-

papers, his stencils, with a plain coat of white ripolin.”10 White could also result in an

agreeable living. Pure and clean seem quite agreeable features when it comes to

housing. But Barragán opted for the symbolisation of luminosity that is associated with

yellow. If a child would draw a star, lightbulb or flame, he or she would draw it yellow.

Even though white is lighter, yellow is the colour that symbolises luminosity.

4.4 Yellow in Christianity

In Christian art, we often see that yellow golden light has been used to show the

presence of the holy or sacred or sometimes even God. In TheAnnunciation of Fra

Angelico we see a yellow beam shining on Mary. This light is coming from the sun with

the hands of God depicted in it. Also in the many Christian paintings characters have

yellow golden halos around them making the viewer aware that these depicted

characters are actually holy. The most common depiction would be that of Jesus Christ

who has been painted more often with than without a halo around his head. This

presence of light has also been translated into architecture in the design of churches,

cathedrals and chapels. If we think about these Christian interiors we do not think of a

closed box but rather of spaces with large windows on the sides with daylight coming

through echoing divinity. Light equals the presence of God.

Barragán opted for the symbolic meaning that yellow has but not in a traditional way.

Traditional emotive meanings of yellow like happiness, joy and cheerfulness are not

exactly the feelings that Barragán has wanted to achieve with the yellow used in the

chapel. Rather the characteristic and association with luminosity is what was the reason

for making the interior of the chapel yellow. With this a sacred place was created. As

Barragán has been described as a humanistic architect there is expected to be less

symbolic meaning because humanistic artists rather use colour in order to create an

agreeable image that is pleasing for the eye. This also counts for Barragán who tried to

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create an agreeable space with his architecture; agreeable as in knowing that God is

present.

5. Warm-cool contrast - Los Clubes

5.1 Playing with the senses

Colour temperature is a phenomenon with many different effects. Usually red is

associated with warm and blue with cool. Warm and cool colours affect our senses. A

space will seem colder when it has cool colours and warmer if it has warm colours. It is

red that we associate with passion, hate or love, the emotions that make the heart pump

harder and make us feel warm inside. Blue is the colour that stands for calmness, security

and comfort. The heart will pump slower, thus making us feel less warm. In an experiment

Itten describes two groups of people were placed in a red painted room and in a blue

painted room. The people felt the temperature being several degrees higher in the red

room than in the blue room, while actually the temperatures in both rooms were exactly

the same. Mahnke also writes about what effect red and blue have on our estimation of

time. Several experiments of psychologists where people placed in a red room

constantly overestimated time whereas in a blue or green room time was

underestimated. The question remains what effect warm and cool colours will have when

combined in one design.

5.2 Los Clubes

Effect on temperature and time are not the main aspects that play a role in Los Clubes,

this has more to do with the perception of space. Los Clubes is a ranch that was built

between 1964 and 1969 for the Folke Egerstrom family in the north of Mexico City. It

consists of La Fuente de los Amantes, Casa Egerstrom and La Cuadra San Cristóbal (the

actual ranch). To discuss warm-cool contrasts the focus will be on La Fuente de los

Amantes and La Cuadra San Cristóbal, since these parts of the residential estate have

the most apparent warm colours used in their elements. Barragán made a distinction

between what was built for the family and what was built for the horses. La Fuente de los

Amantes and La Cuadra San Cristóbal were built for the horses and are the spaces

where Barragán used a warm colour palette, while the residence of the family, Casa

Egerstrom is cream-coloured.

La Fuente de los Amantes and La Cuadra San Cristóbal are both partially enclosed

courtyards. The warm colour palette of both courtyards consists of red-orange, pink,

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purple and white walls and light-yellow floors. With these planes, a staging of the natural

elements is created. Nature is represented by the blue of the sky, the greenery

surrounding the courtyards and the water of the pools that appears blue because it

reflects the sky. Together, these man-made warm-toned and natural cool-toned elements

make up a warm-cool contrast.

5.3 Relativity of colour temperature

In La Fuente de los Amantes, we can see the juxtaposing of cool, warm and neutral

colours. The courtyard has a pool with a fountain made of neutral brown plates and two

neutral brown wooden statues. These are set against a corner of Mexican pink walls with

green trees behind them which branches hang over the pink walls. Because the brown

fountain and statues are set against both pink walls and green trees, depending on the

perspective from which you see the pool and fountain, interplay of cool and warm

colours happens. Colour temperature is a relative phenomenon. Depending on the

adjacent colours, a colour will appear either warm or cool. Red-orange, or minium, is

warmest existing colour and blue-green, or manganese oxide, is the coldest.11 These

colours will always appear warm and cold no matter what colour they are set next to. For

other colours this will vary due to relativity. If we divide the colour wheel into a cold and

warm part we could roughly say that red, orange and yellow make up for the warm half

and green, blue and violet for the cool half. But since colour temperature is relative there

can also be warm blues and cold reds. If we would put a red with a slight tinge of blue

next to vermilion this red would seem cold as vermillion is warmer than this colour. In La

Fuente de los Amantes, the fountain has a neutral brown colour that can seem both warm

and cool depending on the background it is set against. Set against the pink wall, the

neutral brown might appear cool as the pink is warmer than the brown. Set against the

sky and trees the brown of the fountain will look warm.

La Cuadra San Cristóbal, which forms the main part of Los Clubes, also shows this effect

of juxtaposing elements with different colour temperatures. Here we can find the horse

stables, the pool and the drinking troughs for the horses. Vast pink walls surround the

courtyard on two sides.12 They come together at the gate of a small warm purple wall

and in the middle, lies the pool with its fountain that is made of an orange-red plane. The

interplay that Barragán has designed here has the pink walls as mediator between the

warm and the cold. Placed against the orange-red of the fountain these walls look cool-

toned. The pink has a hint of blue in it, but compared to the blue sky it is set against, it

appears warm.

13

Fig. 2. Luis Barragán, LaCuadraSanCristóbal. 1964-1969. From: Danièle Pauly. Barragán:SpaceandShadow,WallsandColour. Birkhäuser, 2008.

5.4 Combining contrasts

Itten also describes that warm and cool are relative terms, just as light and dark. Light-

dark and warm-cool are the two main contrasts of colour.13 He suggests that when

creating a composition with warm-cool contrast, one should refrain from using too many

varieties of lightness. This is because light-dark contrast is more dominant than warm-

cool contrast. If both these contrasts are used in one composition they will start

competing with each other. When one or the other is used, the beauty of these contrasts

can be fully appreciated. In Los Clubes mid-tones with similar lightness values are used

making the warm cool contrast become apparent. The colours used are all mid-tones, the

blue of the sky, green of the grass and trees, Mexican pink of the walls, the brown and

orange-red of the fountains.

5.5 Another world

Los Clubes has been built as a world apart. This enclosure is even more intensified by

the use of warm colours. The inhabitant will feel enclosed by the warm-toned planes.

Kandinsky stated that warm and cool colours put together create horizontal movement.

Warm colours approach the spectator and cold colours retreat him. This has to do with

two different factors. First being that warm is near and cool is far due to the longer

wavelengths of red and shorter wavelengths of blue that are optically registered in

different ways. For red wavelengths, the eye has to adapt its focus. The focal point of red

wavelengths is behind an eye’s retina. The focal point of blue wavelengths lies in front of

the retina. Because of this red seems to be nearer and blue seems to be farther.

Secondly, if we order the primary and secondary colours from light to dark using the

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lightness value of Goethe described previously this would be yellow, orange, red, green,

blue and violet.14 We can split this sequence between red and green and can see that the

lighter side are the so-called warm colours and the darker side is made up of the cool

colours. As described by Kandinksy, lighter colours move towards the spectator and

darker colours move away from the spectator. So, the reason for warm colours to attract

and cool colours to retreat relies not only on the focal point of a colour’s wavelength but

also on the fact that warm colours often are lighter than cool colours. With using warm

colours for Los Clubes while the surroundings are made up of cold colours, the world

outside becomes even more distant making Los Clubes a world apart.

Los Clubes has many different colours in it so it will probably not have a single effect on

one’s emotions. But the effect this colour combination has on people could be a positive

effect. The combination of warm and cool colours has the perfect balance for the psyche

as warm arouses and cool calms. Together they form a perfect balance between active

and passive. Perspective is strengthened by the use of warm colours for the foreground,

Los Clubes, and cool colours for the background, nature. The inhabitant can reside in his

own warm world while keeping out the cold outside world. This can be fully appreciated

because of the similar lightness values that have been used. The fact that Los Clubes is

built as a world apart might make it feel like a safe haven for people. Again, an

agreeable world is created.

6. Colour harmony - Casa Gilardi

6.1 House of harmonies

Colour harmony is the agreeable appearance of two or more colours together. It has a

direct effect on the soul. Colour harmony is dependent on how the psyche reacts to it. It is

based on similar colour character and lightness value. Harmony can be seen as balance

and symmetry of strength. Different persons have different opinions of what is colour

harmony. This is what we have seen earlier in the experiment of Itten with his students.

The experiment shows that colour harmony is also a very subjective matter.

The Gilardi House, one of the last projects Barragán did, shows a sequence of spaces

with different kinds of colour harmonies. The Gilardi House is built on a very narrow but

deep building plot. One enters the house and from the entrance hall can see the corridor

that leads to the pool in the back of the house. This corridor has yellow light shining

through coloured panes of glass that we know from the Chapel of las Madres

Capuchinas. The incoming light makes the ceiling and walls appear yellow, while they

15

actually are white. At the end of the corridor is the pool. In the middle of the pool stands a

bright red pillar and the corner walls behind the pool are coloured blue. The Gilardi

House is a work in which several clear references to Bauhaus masters Johannes Itten

and Josef Albers have been made. Of Itten Barragán took away the chromatic interplay

of warm and cool colours, where the warm advance and the cool retreat. Influenced by

Albers he juxtaposed planes with different pure colours next to each other, so that planar

coloured surfaces would interact.15

Fig. 3. Luis Barragán, Gilardipool. 1975-1977. From: Danièle Pauly. Barragán:SpaceandShadow,WallsandColour. Birkhäuser, 2008.

6.2 Contrasting harmony

Mahnke divides colour harmony into two categories, the contrasting and the related. The

contrasting category’s main colour harmony is complementary harmony. This harmony is

based on hues that are opposite in the colour wheel. Colour schemes of this harmony

often have both warm and cool tones in them. Some derivations of complementary

harmony are analogous-complementary, split-complementary and double-

complementary harmony.16 The pool of the Gilardi house has a triad-complementary

harmony as the lines that connect yellow, red and blue in the colour wheel form a

triangle. Complementary harmony is based on a totality in colour that the eye is always

looking for. This can be shown with examples of a few effects related to complementary

colour schemes. Successive contrast shows that the eye is always looking for balance. In

the Interactionofcolor Albers describes this effect. If one would look at a certain colour for

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a long span of time and then turn to a white plane its complementary colour would be

seen. This effect is called the after-image. Related to this is the simultaneous contrast.

This is when the eye generates the complementary colour of what the eye sees. A simple

test that shows this effect is when someone would look at a red square with a smaller

neutral grey square inside. The grey square would appear slightly green, red’s

complementary colour. This also would happen when putting this neutral grey square

inside a bigger yellow square. This time the grey would appear slightly violet. One can

determine if a scheme has complementary colour harmony by mixing all colours

together. If these together form a neutral mid-tone grey, then these colours are in

harmony. For this all the primaries, red, yellow and blue, or mixed forms of these are

needed. If all colours are present, like in the pool of the Gilardi House, the eye will not be

searching for the missing colours to create totality in colour. The eye then finds ease and

restfulness.

6.3 Harmonic quantity

Colour harmony also has to do with quantity used in the composition. Good quantity ratio

is needed to bring balance to a composition; no colour can overrule the other colours.

The strength of a coloured element part of a composition is based on lightness and size

of the element. The higher the lightness value, the smaller the size should be, as lighter

colours work outward and darker colours work inward as described earlier. So colour

harmony is based on both hue and lightness. According to Goethe we can determine

how much of a colour should be used in a composition based on lightness value. Yellow

has a lightness value of nine, red of six and blue of four. Based on this Goethe stated that

when making a composition with yellow, red and blue, one should stick to the ratio of

yellow:red:blue as 3:6:8. These proportions can actually be found in the composition of

the Gilardi pool. Yellow forms just the frame of the image, then the red of the pillar

already makes up a bigger part of the image and blue is the colour that is used most.

When looking at Barragán’s pool in the Gilardi House through Goethe’s eyes, one could

say that there is a perfect harmonious space created with this colour composition.

When entering the room with the pool, which is also the dining room, and turning around,

one sees on one side the yellow corridor that he has come through and on the other side

the patio of the house that has a large violet wall. This again is a complementary colour

harmony, a classic complementary harmony. This scheme exists of two complementary

colours; colours that are on the opposite side of the colour wheel. Complementary

colours can also be found with light. If one has a white light bundle, this implies it has

every colour in it, and subtracts one colour from the bundle this will change into the

complementary colour of the subtracted colour. So can a red light bundle be formed with

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any shade of light but green and a violet bundle with every shade of light but yellow. The

quantities of colour used in the patio and corridor are again based on the strength or

lightness values of the colours. The image one sees is formed by the small corridor on

the right side and the big violet wall of the patio. This appears harmonious as yellow is a

very light colour and violet a very dark colour.

6.4 Related harmony

On the patio, one will encounter two juxtaposed planes, one in violet and one in Mexican

pink. Here we can find what Mahnke calls analogous harmony. Analogous harmony and

monochromatic harmony are the related colour harmonies. Monochromatic colour

harmonies are based on one hue with different values and saturations. Compositions

using this colour harmony would result in a ton-sur-ton composition. Analogous harmonies

consist of two or three, usually not more, colours that lie next to each other in the colour

wheel. The Mexican pink, which can be seen as a light cool-toned red, and violet

together form this analogous harmony.

6.5 Subjective subject

It is hard to determine what effect colour harmony has on our emotions since it is such a

subjective matter. We could say that contrasting colour harmonies have a restful effect on

the human eye. Though, rest might not be the first word that would come to mind when in

a room with bright yellow, red and blue. This restfulness might be more physiological

than psychological. Related colour harmonies are colours that suit each other well

because they lie closely together in the colour wheel. But if harmony is mostly

dependent on our mind should harmony fit either into one category or the other?

Kandinsky calls red and blue harmonic colours. This colour scheme does not fit into the

contrasting nor related category. Kandinsky takes more artistic freedom in the definition

of harmony and believes that harmony is “something that appeals less to the eye and

more to the soul”.17 The subjective, psychological, part might be more important than the

objective or physiological part. When we talk about harmony as being the pleasant

appearance of a colour scheme there might be a true distinction between what is restful

for the eye or what is pleasing for a person.

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7. Conclusion

What effect colour has on our emotions is hard to say because colour-emotion

association is so different per person. One colour scheme will never have the same effect

on different people. Maybe architects stray from using colour because it is something that

cannot be measured. One cannot compare its effect to the mathematical dimensions of a

volume, neither to the properties of a building material.

Even when we compare masters who have written about colour, like Kandinsky, Itten and

Goethe, we can see differences in their perception of colour. Kandinsky used yellow and

blue in his examples of cold and warm and calls blue the darkest colour. This differs from

the ideas of Itten and Goethe who would use orange-red and blue-green as warm and

cold and violet as the darkest colour.

Although psychological effect of colour is not measureable it should not be a reason to

refrain from using it. Barragán has used colour beautifully throughout his architecture and

it is with good reason that his architecture has been called emotive. He shows that not

only with colour you can have an emotional effect on people but also you can enhance

the plasticity of a building that is valued so much by architects. So it might seem strange

that colour is not integrated into architecture more. Architects can also use colour to show

their own opinion on architecture; they could use it in an expressive way. The architects

of today surely have not refrained from showing their vision when it comes to plastic

volume, especially with all the different forms with which the starchitects of today make

their mark. Colour as a design tool should be valued just as much as volume, material

and other aspects of architecture.

If we look at the symbolic, impressive and expressive problem of colour this can help us

know when to use what type of colour scheme. We could roughly say that impressive

colour use is universal, like in warm-cool contrast that has been used in Los Clubes. This

is because this effect is optical and biological. These optical effects are most likely to be

registered in similar ways by different people. The impressive effect of colour probably

finds its origin in the two deepest layers of the colour experience pyramid of Mahnke.

This form of colour use architects could use when designing a building that should speak

to a broad public.

Symbolic use of colour already is more specific and could be used when a building has

to represent a certain place or group. In the Chapel de las Madres Capuchinas we can

see that God has been embodied through the colour yellow. Christians will feel at ease

knowing that God is present. In this, it is also shown that symbolic use is culture specific.

The colour of the chapel might not have the same effect on for example a Muslim. This

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perception of colour is found in the middle layers of the colour experience pyramid, those

of colour symbolism and association.

Expressive colour use might be the hardest problem to tackle in architecture. One could

say that contrasting harmony is the most restful for the eye with its totality in colour. But

in Itten’s experiments we have seen that expressive use of colour is really personal and

subjective. As expressive colour use has to do with personal colour preference, this

originates in the top layer of the colour experience pyramid, that of the personal

relationship with colour. This personal colour preference architects could use when

designing for a very specific group, like a home or a personal working space.

Emotions that colours evoke have not been really defined precisely because this is such

a personal matter. But there can be made an estimation of what might have a positive or

negative effect on the user. This is also what Barragán has created with his architecture.

He never stated to evoke very specific emotions but opted for creating an agreeable

living. If architects want to use colour in their projects they can use the three aesthetic

problems of colour as a design tool. When keeping in mind the biology, culture or

personality of their future users, architects do not have to be afraid to use colour in their

design.

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Notes

1. With disegno line and drawing was meant, colore referred to colour. The idea that

colour could have effect on great art was rejected, it could even deteriorate art.

This idea from Italian Renaissance was later also adopted by École des Beaux-

Arts, thus influencing the rest of Europe.

2. Josef Albers, InteractionofColor (Yale University Press, 2006), 1.

3. The blue Klein used was IKB which stands for International Klein Blue, the colour

that Yves Klein patented in 1960 after a long search for the right chemical mixture

that retained the richness of the pigment powder.

4. Luis Barragán, PritzkerArchitecturePrize1980(Chicago: Hyatt Foundation, 1980), 3. 5. Frank H. Mahnke, Color,Environment,andHumanResponse:AnInterdisciplinary

UnderstandingofColorandItsUseasaBeneficialElementintheDesignoftheArchitecturalEnvironment (Wiley, 1996), 49.

6. Handwritten document as cited in Danièle Pauly, Barragán:spaceandshadow,wallsandcolour(Birkhäuser, 2008), 66.

7. The difference between layer three and four can be quite confusing as both layers

have to do with symbolic association. The third layer includes symbolism of

themes that are the same in different places in the world, like many references

from nature. For example, blue that stands for sky, air and water. The fourth layer

includes symbolism that refers to history or culture. For example, orange being the

national colour of the Netherlands.

8. Ultramarine was produced through a laborious process. Ground lapis lazuli was

mixed with wax, oil and gum to create a paste. This was kneaded in lye that

extracted the blue pigment. This process of kneading was repeated with new

batches of lye until no more blue pigment came out of the paste and could

sometimes take days.

9. Green is the most restful colour because the focal point of its wavelength lands

exactly on the retina of the human eye. Because of this the eye does not have to

adjust its focus when looking at green.

10. Le Corbusier, TheDecorativeArtofToday(MIT Press, 1987), 188.

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11. In his examples of warm and cold, Kandinsky uses yellow as the colour standing

for warmth. He does this to make his point of horizontal movement clear. He

describes that yellow approaches the spectator more than red as red radiates

within itself.

12. It is notable that the colour pink has its own name while it actually is a lighter or

subdued version of red. Still we do not say light red, as we would say light blue or

light green. Pink was the name of manufacture of the pigment. Among them were

green pinks, yellow pinks and rose pinks. After discontinuation of production of the

first two, pink became the name for the colour rose pink.

13. Itten also describes that when drawing two lines, one between yellow and violet

and one between green-blue and red-orange, these lines actually are

perpendicular to one another.

14. Red and green have the same lightness value of six.

15. The use of colour in the Gilardi pool has similarities with illustrations that Albers

made in 1945, wherein cobalt blue and cadmium red planes overlap each other.

See Danièle Pauly, Barragán:spaceandshadow,wallsandcolour(Birkhäuser, 2008),

152.

16. Analogous-complementary are two colours that lie next to each other in the colour

wheel with the complementary of one of the two. Split-complementary are one

colour and the two colours surrounding its complementary. Double-

complementary are two similar colours and their complementaries.

17. Wassily Kandinsky, ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt(Dover Publications, 1914), 52.

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