59fects, was intended to promote conviviality at receptions or at
mealtimes. Fundamentally, and in particular when it appears
in saturated form, the dynamic and gestural impact of colour
is decisive for architecture. It attracts or repels, elevates or
weighs down, carries and leads us along through room se-
quences via widening, narrowing and effects of depth.
Uniform coloration emphasizes plastic unity, while the
heterogeneous coloration of walls or other elements may
cause structural elements to appear as an accumulation of
individual elements. Linkages are affected, for example, by
forming a > corner by giving a wall and ceiling the same or
similar tones, thereby producing a containing effect. On the
other hand, the convergence of contrasting coloured surfaces
along the edges of a three-dimensional body may produce an
optical disintegration. Walls or architectural elements, how-
ever, may be handled in such a way that they seem to have
been cut out of coloured bodies. When the interior colour of
the body contrasts visibly with its outside, an entrance, for
example, may be reminiscent of the interior of a piece of fruit
that has been sliced open. The spectrum of structural effects
of coloration extends from the articulation and supporting
clarification of the spatial complex, all the way to the extreme
of a far-reaching fragmentation into self-sufficient coloured
surfaces and individual coloured volumes.
Outside, colour can be decisive in throwing a building
into relief against its surroundings, or integrating it into the
context. Decisive here is not only the coloration of the sur-
rounding facades, i.e. where local building materials such as
red Main Sandstone are used; the colour of the earth and that
of vegetation in the vicinity also play a role. Essentially, col-
our makes it possible to establish large-scale spatial relation-
ships. Many landscapes and townscapes are shaped by the
characteristic coloration of the architecture.
Literature: Frieling 1969; Meerwein et al. 2007