Red Color Theory Essay

In 1932, a new architectural style in the modern movement emerged to free the architectural form from any decorative element (Hitchcock and Johnson, 1966). It was influenced by the philosophy of Adolf Loos “Ornament and Crime”, where he describes ornaments and decorations as a crime since they are labour intensive (Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2004, para. 7), As well as “form follows function” by Frank Lloyd Wright (Runco, 1999, p. 82). Both philosophies advocated simplicity and functionality rather than creating decorations. Therefore, color has not been discussed enough although of its important role, since it was viewed as a choice for a decorative purpose. Moreover, books at that time documented only black and white photographs, which resulted a strong impact on how buildings are perceived. Although theories of leading architects as Le Corbusier, Theo Van Doesburg and Bruno Taut encourage the use of color, Classical Modern Architecture is believed to be characterized by the avoidance of colors and white walls (Wigley, 1995).

We tend to think of things as they have fixed colors, but in fact color is just a result of light. A red box appearance for instance, is a result of the reflection of the red color, while absorbing other colors when light falls on the box. From this perception, he studied how color can also interact with light. He considered that the appearance of the facade vary , when the angle and the intensity of light change from daytime to nighttime (Klinkhammer, 1990). Therefore, the choice of color to him was also based on the position of the structure towards the sun , since he says “Color is light” (Klinkhammer, 1990, p. 223). To conclude, the collective work of such leading architects as Le Corbusier, Van Doesburg and Bruno Taut introduced color in architecture in a more powerful way , which helped to dissolve the