Colour/space : its quality management in architecture : the colour/space unity as an unity of visual communication

In external city environment areas there is a poor understanding and often noconscious use of colour.The experts that work with colour, in terms of the built environment either as projectmakers,or as managers (decision-makers), are poorly prepared to deal with it.As an answer they minimise the problem of colour in architecture, especially inexteriors, simply by omission; or, they introduce colour mostly without criteria - insome projects colour plays only a cosmetic role - supposedly aesthetical.Most project-makers do not consider colour as an integral part of the globaldesign process.Colour theory and teaching courses have been considered supplemental to themainstream of architectural education; for most part of the students of architectureor landscaping architecture, colour remains a matter of individual taste.People in general are very conscious of colour and texture in the built environmentand they really like variations (as some studies done in Sweden (Koller 1981;Mahnke 1993) have already showed). They are negative and critical of austere,colourless environments in our cities; also colour has psycho-therapeutic effectsthat can be utilised to meet the physiological needs of people living in crowdedenvironments.Colour is one of the basic components of the environment which influences life qualityand it can be approached from different perspectives and different disciplines.This research addresses the issue of colour in the architecture of the built environmentanalysing the behaviour of the unity which results from the straight relationship betweencolour and space(as quantity of colour): the Colour/Space Unity. The investigationshows not only the existence of this unity, but also that it is a unity of visualcommunication.In terms of allocating the findings and interpretations through a review of therelevant theory, the author uses a survey methodology - a full test response questionnaire to a wide range of members of society (to test theory) and semistructured interviews with a panel of experts(as a feasibility test of the questionnairedesign and contents). The questionnaire findings are used to test the theoreticalposition through further comments from the expert panel.The research presents as results, not only the existence and importance of thecolour/space unity, as a visual communicational one, such as the levels ofarticulation of the messages in the built environment or the contrast in the relationshipbetween qualification and quantification in colour/space language; but itdemonstrates the major importance of the colour/space unity in the architecturalproject and in the colour planning management within the built environment