The Journal of Public Space

Quantitative study on landscape colors of plant communities in urban parks based on natural color system and M-S theory in Nanjing, China

The increasing complexity of urban colour and growing recognition of its psychological effects prompts rethinking of the current conceptual and methodological approaches to environmental colour design. Contemporary designers are challenged to understand how evolving colour knowledge can be integrated with the fundamentals of colour design. This paper aims to elaborate on the concept of environmental colour composition (ECC) and outlines an alternative approach to colour design in urban environments. A better understanding of the dynamic relationships between the tangible and perceptual elements of an ECC can bring new meaning to the consideration of colour as an integral component of city design. The proposed concepts of environmental colour events and scenarios provide a foundation for both further theoretical inquiry and practical application of synthesised colour knowledge in the design of urban environments.

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Exploring Environmental Colour Design in Urban Contexts

Lighting environment analysis of Chengdu underground commercial spaces

Improvement of the integration of visually impacting architectures in historical urban scene, an application of semantic differencial method

Werner Spillmann is known as a colour consultant, influential pedagogue, and passionate promoter of colour as a primary design issue. This article aims to present Spillmann's important contribution to environmental colour design giving special attention to his noteworthy activities in the context of the International Colour Association (AIC). Since 1960, beginning with the period when he became a lecturer and subsequently professor in the Department of Architecture at the Winterthur Polytechnic in Switzerland, Spillmann has successfully introduced colour as a basic element of architectural education and also developed a method for using colour in environmental design. During the initial years of the AIC, Spillmann attended the association's rather sporadic events beginning with its first Congress in 1969. Spillmann's influence on the AIC grew with the association's own consolidation and increasing international importance. He presented his first AIC paper in 1976 and by 1977, when the AIC began to consequently fulfill its constitutional aim of realizing an annual program and had become an internationally renowned organization in the field of colour studies, Spillmann began to play a key role in the leadership of the association. In 1982, Spillmann became a member of the AIC Study Group on Environmental Colour Design. In 1983, he was invited to give a presentation at the AIC Midterm Meeting in Sweden, and, in 1985, he was elected to the AIC Executive Committee for the period 1986–1989. In serving the AIC during this time period, he organized the Interim Meeting on Colour in Environmental Design, which took place in 1988 at the Winterthur Polytechnic. Spillmann's contribution to the AIC represents the crystalization of the theoretical and practical lines of development that he pursued through his own teaching and professional design practice. During this same time period that he was intensely involved in the AIC, his importance and influence as a teacher and design professional increased as well. The intense courses he developed for architects, designers, and planners and taught in Winterthur between 1982 and 1995 were highly successful. As a teacher, Spillmann was acclaimed not only because of his consistent methodological approach and comprehensive content of his courses but especially for his charisma. Spillmann's involvement in the AIC and his teaching and personal professional development demonstrate how his assiduous striving toward a greater appreciation of colour as an imminent element in contemporary architectural design resulted in raising awareness of the psychological, social, and cultural value of colour within the related fields of architectural history and theory, cultural studies, design, and urbanism. Especially Spillmann's special contribution is underscored by his capacity to take up new approaches adapting and testing these through application in architectural education and design practice. Spillmann has published several essays on colour in environmental design and colour order systems. He presently lives in Basel, Switzerland. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 30, 53–65, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.20075

Verena M. Schindler

Papers

Colour as Vocation: Werner Spillmann's Contribution to Environmental Colour Design

In memoriam Michel Cler (1938-2017)