Western architecture has long associated monochrome with purity, sophistication and good taste, leaving colourful buildings marginalised despite a rich history of architectural experimentation. A new book by designer Adam Nathaniel Furman argues for a broader appreciation of colour in the built environment.
The modern urban landscape is dominated by muted tones. From grey and beige apartment blocks to black smartphones, silver laptops and cars in shades of grey, colour has increasingly disappeared from the physical environment. Meanwhile, everyday life remains saturated with images, advertising and digital content.
This divide reflects a longstanding tension in Western culture, according to the architectural history explored in Chromatic Architecture, written by Furman and design journalist Kate Mazade.
The historical roots of monochrome
The preference for white and unadorned surfaces can be traced back to the Renaissance, when artists and patrons rediscovered ancient Greek and Roman sculpture. Because much of the original paint had disappeared over centuries, the sculptures were often treated as examples of pure, uncoloured beauty. In some cases, surviving traces of pigment were removed, reinforcing the misconception that classical art had originally been monochrome.
The same ideal influenced architecture during the Enlightenment, when neoclassical buildings borrowed from antiquity while largely ignoring its colourful traditions. Discoveries of vividly decorated Roman interiors, including those at Pompeii, also challenged prevailing ideas about classical taste and morality.
That association between restraint, seriousness and aesthetic virtue continued into modernism. Although the movement encompassed colourful approaches such as Expressionism and De Stijl, its legacy is often defined by white walls, minimalist interiors and exposed concrete.
Styles that embraced ornament and vivid colour, including Art Deco and postmodernism, were frequently dismissed as kitsch or architectural mistakes.
The architects who resisted
Furman’s book celebrates designers who challenged this monochrome tradition. His own projects include a ceramic wall at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, a 57-metre mosaic at London Bridge station and the Croydon Colonnade, whose geometric tiles transition from deep blue to white.
The book’s cover features the Technical Administration Building of Hoechst AG near Frankfurt, designed by Peter Behrens between 1920 and 1924. The colourful brick Expressionist building illustrates how even pioneering modernist architecture could be marginalised by later histories that favoured a more restrained aesthetic.
Other examples demonstrate that colour has remained a recurring force in architectural design. Gerrit Rietveld’s Schröder House in Utrecht incorporates bold primary colours, while Le Corbusier used coloured panels in some of his housing projects. Mexican architect Luis Barragán became renowned for his expressive use of pink, purple and blue.
The high-tech movement also found a place for vivid colour. The Centre Pompidou in Paris, with its brightly coloured structural and mechanical elements, showed how colour could be accepted when it was presented as part of an engineering aesthetic.
Art Deco offers another rich legacy, from the green and maroon glazed tiles of Edwardian London to the pastel-coloured hotels of Miami and the ornate Guardian and Fisher buildings in Detroit. Yet the later association of postmodernism with commercial gimmickry helped reinforce suspicion towards colourful architecture.
Colour beyond prestigious buildings
Some of the most expressive uses of colour can be found far from major architectural commissions. In neighbourhoods such as the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, the Roma communities of Romania and villages in Tamil Nadu, paint offers an accessible means of personal and collective expression.
In wealthier countries, by contrast, colourful design is often confined to children’s facilities, hospitals and mental health institutions, reinforcing the idea that it is unsuitable for more prestigious settings.
Poorly designed public buildings have also damaged colour’s reputation. In Britain, some hospitals, schools and other projects commissioned through the Private Finance Initiative from the 1990s onwards used arbitrary splashes of colour to distract from shortcomings in their architecture.
The argument for colour, therefore, is not that every building should be brightly decorated. Rather, selective use of colour could help make increasingly uniform urban environments feel more distinctive and less alienating.
A continuing challenge to architectural convention
British architects have continued to challenge the preference for neutral tones. Piers Gough of CZWG designed colourful buildings including China Wharf and the Circle in Bermondsey, while Charles Holland’s A House for Essex, created with artist Grayson Perry, combines green tiles, a golden roof and bright red frames.
John Outram, one of the leading figures in British postmodernism, has also built a career around elaborate colour, symbolism and historical references. His projects include the Isle of Dogs pumping station, known as the Temple of Storms, and Duncan Hall at Rice University in Texas.
Outram, now 92, has continued to develop new ideas, including a proposal for nine decorated columns at Connaught Village Green near Marble Arch. The design draws on mythological and ancient Egyptian imagery and proposes using PVC material associated with small boats used by refugees crossing the Channel.
Reflecting on his career, Outram said he had frequently been criticised for using too many colours, adding that excess colour had long been treated as a transgression in Protestant England.
His observation captures the central argument of Chromatic Architecture: the preference for monochrome is not simply a matter of taste or material choice, but a cultural tradition that has repeatedly pushed more expressive approaches to the margins. Colour has never disappeared from architecture, but its advocates continue to challenge the assumption that restraint is synonymous with good design.
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