谁说设计师的世界只有黑白灰？斑斓的色彩更是醒目且有力
“我们可以通过色彩的力量让生活的空间更加人性化”
"We can humanise our existing spaces simply by deploying the radical power of colour"
由专筑网胖胖鸟，小R编译
2023 年，托马斯·希瑟威克（Thomas Heatherwick）发起了“人性化”（Humanise）运动，人们对此反应强烈。希瑟威克认为现在的建筑令他失望，因为这些所谓的建筑太过无趣，对公众心理和健康产生了负面的影响，而他提出的解决方案则是呼吁人们共同创造更加有趣、更富有灵魂的建筑，让人们在这样的空间里感到愉悦和自在。
然而，当希瑟威克呼吁实施这一创意之时，却招来一片质疑之声。但他提出的问题确实值得我们深思熟虑：我们周围的建筑物、居住其中的社区、学习和互动的空间——这些的设计最初目的是为了让我们感到舒适和快乐吗？如果我们仔细观察身边的环境，可能会发现学校、图书馆和社区中心常常给人一种“视觉沙漠”的感觉，因为缺乏特点、多样性和富有灵魂的细节。要创建更富有视觉吸引力的空间，或许我们可以和希瑟威克一起努力。
而在众多“使建筑物不再枯燥”的设计方案中，色彩的使用是其中一种非常有效的方法。尽管现代主义的发展趋势常常使我们远离那些明亮、醒目的色彩，而选择更加克制的色调，但我认为，色彩是我们唤起旧建筑活力、让其不再枯燥的有效方法。
在神经美学的崭新视角下，我们认识到，长时间置身于枯燥、无生气且单调的环境中，对我们的身心健康实为不利。这样的环境非但不能带来宁静与放松，反而会激发大脑释放压力激素皮质醇，加剧我们的紧张与焦虑情绪。
When Thomas Heatherwick launched his Humanise campaign in 2023, skepticism came fast and furious. Decrying the negative psychological and public-health effects of what the designer calls "boring buildings", the campaign issues a well-meaning cry for interesting, soulful buildings that are better for people.
Heatherwick's campaign has been met with a barrage of criticism, but what if he's onto something? His line of inquiry offers an opportunity to take a step back and look at our built environment, at the places where our communities go to learn, connect, and find care, and ask, are these spaces actually designed to make us feel better?
When we look closely, we might see that our schools, libraries, and community centres in the US often feel like visual deserts – devoid of character, variety and soulful details. Instead of being satisfied with this status quo, we could do well to join Heatherwick's campaign, banding together to create more visually interesting spaces that improve our wellbeing.
One often overlooked yet highly powerful way to create "unboring" buildings is through the use of colour. While the trajectory of modernism has often led us away from bright, bold colours and towards a more restrained palette in our buildings and cities, I believe colour is an accessible and sustainable way to bring new life to old buildings that are failing to serve their users on a psychological, physiological or emotional level.
We know from the emerging field of neuroaesthetics, often referenced by Heatherwick, that being immersed in boring, unspirited, and monotonous environments is bad for our health. Rather than calm or soothe our nervous systems, these bland spaces actually do the exact opposite, stimulating cortisol production to increase stress and anxiety.
为了身心的健康，我们需要视觉上的滋养。不妨走进大自然，漫步其间，你会发现自然界的斑斓色彩、多样质感、柔和光线与深远景深，瞬间便能减缓心跳，带来一份难以言喻的宁静与平和。
然而，反观孩子们的学习天地、家庭互动的空间乃至社区活动的场所，其视觉呈现往往未能与它们承载的重要功能相匹配。这些地方常显得千篇一律，缺乏个性与温情，给人一种疏离与不受欢迎之感，难以营造出公平、温暖且充满归属感的环境。
那么，为何不能将这些空间打造成色彩斑斓、充满活力的乐园呢？毕竟，色彩的力量是巨大的，它能滋养我们的心灵，促进学习与成长。
要实现这一愿景，我们不必从零开始。正如建筑师兼色彩专家兰德尔·菲尔丁所言：“研究表明，学习在丰富多彩的环境中更加高效。‘学习’的调色板上，不应只有灰、米、白或浅色系的单调。”简言之，生命因色彩而绚烂，学习亦因色彩而生动。
因此，为了营造更加人性化、温馨的建筑环境，我们无需大兴土木，重起炉灶。通过巧妙运用色彩的力量，对现有空间进行改造升级，便能让其焕然一新。这既是一种经济高效的方式，也是对环境友好的选择。一抹油漆、一些复合色素或是窗户上的贴膜，就能让建筑焕发生机，改变我们看待世界的视角，进而提升我们在其中的居住体验。
We need visual stimuli in order to be and feel our best. If in doubt, simply take a walk in nature and marvel at how the variety of colours, textures, light, and depth of field can immediately lower your heart rate and bring a sense of calm.
However, when we look at the places where children learn, the essential places where families connect and community spaces where people are encouraged to grow and thrive, we find their visual expression pales in comparison to the soulful jobs they are intended to carry out. Stripped of character and personality, these buildings are often bland, colourless, and anything but welcoming, unable to foster a sense of equity and belonging.
Instead of soulless and institutional, why can't these places be colourful and alive? Especially because we know that colour nourishes us, increasing the human capacity for learning and growing.
"Research shows that learning benefits from a stimulus-rich environment," says architect and colour researcher Randall Fielding. “ is not supported by a palette that is dominated by gray, beige, white or off-white." In short, life grows where colour goes.
If we want a more humane built environment, we don't necessarily need to start from scratch with new, visually interesting buildings constructed from the ground up. The truth is, we can do much to humanise our existing spaces simply by deploying the radical power of colour.
It's a more sustainable approach to creating meaningful buildings that doesn't require a huge material or labour investment. Colour is transformational – simply by applying a coat of paint, a composite pigment or a window film, our buildings can change the way we see the world, and by extension, our place within it.
即使那些看起来很难用色彩装饰的建筑，也可以通过巧妙的设计变得生动起来。例如，Shreesh Design工作室在印度Gujurat设计了一所幼儿园，由简单的钢结构组成，每个结构都涂成不同的亮色，整个校园变得生动有趣。同时，这种色彩的应用也使得建筑结构更容易拆卸和搬运。
在西班牙，建筑师Ricardo Bofill擅长将迷人的色彩应用于功能性元素，如楼梯和柱子，以及整个建筑。他认为，色彩是让住宅充满生机和快乐的方式，当时这些项目常常很单调，完全以功能性为主，忽视了美学。
Ricardo Bofill和 Shreesh 展示了大面积使用色彩的可能性，其他人则展示了选择性地使用色彩的力量。在新加坡，信息通信部所在的 1934 年建造的新古典主义建筑，有 927 个被涂成彩虹色的窗户，瞬间给这座原本冷漠的建筑带来了亲切感。
在葡萄牙，Mezzo Atelier 将一座 20 世纪初期的马厩改造成两座客房，引入了一座玫瑰色的新建筑，区分了新旧，并赋予了建筑亲切感。在这里，色彩的使用很微妙，也很符合环境，表明使用色彩并不一定要大张旗鼓或故意突出。
我常常遇到抵制使用色彩的建筑师。他们通常的理由是，建筑必须与周围环境相融合。然而，这样的设计只会延续中立建筑的趋势。如果我们可以打破这种循环，使用色彩的方式更有意义，那该多好。
Even buildings that seem resistant to the application of colour can be coaxed into animation. For example, Shreesh Design Studio created a pre-school in Gujurat state, India (pictured) that consists of simple steel structures arranged in a circle, each containing classrooms.
While the structures themselves lack ornamentation and focus on functionality, rendering each building in a different, brightly coloured hue helps the campus come alive with a playful sense of variety. The application of colour also keeps the structures modifiable, with each designed for ease of disassembly and transport.
In Spain, architect Ricardo Bofill was known for applying dazzling colours to functional elements like stairways and columns, and to entire buildings, like his salmon pink La Muralla Roja apartment complex in Manzanera, Spain. For him, colour was a way to bring life and joy to housing projects, which at the time were often drab and focused purely on functionality at the cost of aesthetics.
While Bofill and Shreesh demonstrate the possibilities when colour is applied in broad strokes, others reveal the power of a selective application of colour. In Singapore, the Ministry of Information Communications is housed in a 1934 neoclassical building whose 927 windows have been painted in the colours of the rainbow, bringing an instant air of approachability to an otherwise stoic building.
In Portugal, Mezzo Atelier has updated an early-20th-century stable into two guesthouses, introducing a new volume in dusty rose that distinguishes old from new and lends an inviting sensibility. Here, the colour is subtle and contextual enough that the building still fits into its surroundings, showing that the use of colour doesn't have to be about loud gestures or standing out.
I often encounter architects who are resistant to using colour. Usually, their argument against colour has to do with a belief that buildings must be contextual and fit with their surroundings. But designing this way will only perpetuate the trend towards neutral buildings. What if we can break the cycle and use colour the way it is most meaningful: with intention?
想想像Luis Barragán、Ricardo Bofill和Emmanuelle Moureaux这样的设计师——他们不怕在设计中注入大量的色彩。他们使用色彩使建筑物变得亲切和吸引人，成为让灵魂感到愉悦的地方。他们的建筑已经深受社区和建筑界的喜爱，我们可以从他们的勇气和使用色彩的意图中学到很多。
同时，我们也不应该仅仅为了与众不同而设计建筑。色彩应该被用来产生特定的影响。我们需要回到我们的设计目的——我们的使命是服务于他人，使用我们的技能创造让人们感到滋养的空间。
建筑应该让我们感到快乐和联系，感到被呵护和珍视，个人和集体都能从中获得能量。还有什么比色彩更能实现这一点呢？
Think of designers like Luis Barragán, Ricardo Bofill, and Emmanuelle Moureaux – trailblazers who weren't afraid to inject swaths of colour into their designs. They used colour to make their buildings inviting and engaging, places that make your soul happy. Their buildings have become beloved by their communities and the larger architectural canon alike, and we can learn much from their bravery and willingness to use colour with meaning.
At the same time, we shouldn't strive to create buildings that stand out simply for the sake of being different. Colour should be used intentionally and for a focused impact. It's important to return again to our purpose as designers – our calling is to be of service and to use our skills to create places that nourish people.
Our buildings should inspire joy and connection, make us feel nurtured and valued, and energise us personally and collectively. What better way to achieve that than through colour?
Laura Guido-Clark is the founder of colour-focused design consultancy Love Good Color and the non-profit Project Color Corps.
