Category: Lifestyle

COLOR IN ARCHITECTURE BETWEEN ETHICS AND AESTHETICS
Article from Collection Luxury Lifestyle Magazine #4 April 2024
Texts by ANGELA DI PALMA, MAGDA RUGGIERO Architects

In previous articles, we have analyzed how certain peculiarities in architecture are necessary, and, for this, the concepts of outfit and luxury have been explored in depth, the former understood as ad hoc design and the latter as an expression of the pursuit of excellence in daily life connected with the visual arts and the culture of being well. Color is another key element in architecture: it can be regarded as a form of artistic expression that plays an important role from the ethical point of view of well-being and aesthetics of custom detail design. Austrian artist Jorrit Torquinst asserted that “architectural space is a blind, total void until color intervenes, giving the space an input of concreteness” (Color and Light. Theory and Practice, Unicopli, Milan). Such a statement by Torquinst would seem to detract from design, but in fact it enhances it, integrating color as an element that closes the ideational process.

Architectural design is always a composition of processes, even separate ones, that start from the needs related to the context, territorial or real estate, which as they grow they amalgamate with the construction and decorative details in which color is among the protagonists.

From the Paleolithic to the present, the production and breadth of the range of colors have shown how they are able to convey historical and political messages, always highlighting emotional values. Construction and decorative details of exterior facades and interior spaces have always been symbols of social classification, personal taste and the function that the architectural object represents, testifying to how form and size, together with color, connote the economic-social importance of a building and its interior spaces.

Extraordinary examples of urban redevelopment through the use of color are the Santa Caterina market in Barcelona, designed by architect Benedetta Tagliabue, and Central Saint Giles in London, designed by architect Renzo Piano. The former, which grew out of the redevelopment of the old district market designed in 1848 on the remains of a 15th-century convent and is now an icon of Barcelona, breathed new life into the entire Ribera district by breaking a basic regular and monochromatic pattern. The recurring theme of this project is the irregularity of geometries, completely bespoke, where there is rarely repetitiveness, each piece is unique and each object is colored with great chromatic attention. What colors were chosen? Those of fruits and vegetables!

The second was born in London’s Soho district, in an urban space resulting from the demolition of an anonymous 1960s brick-built building. It represents an epochal change in the neighborhood in which it stands: it is emergent and colorful, jagged and pierced, shielded by large metal elements but open by glazing and 6-meter-high holes. Seemingly enclosed, it actually opens inward onto a square, the heart of this eccentric architectural complex, which is also “colored” by the presence of cafes, restaurants and businesses.
The predominant colors of the facades are red, orange, yellow and green, in sharp contrast to the rest of the city where gray tones predominate. Why this choice? It seems to come from a color analysis of the wooden frames of London’s characteristic pubs and stores.

“Mankind needs color to live,” Le Corbusier asserted, inventing a study model for color design in architecture called ”Architectural Polychromy.” Le Corbusier, inspired by Aristotle, was able to capture the potential of colors, their expressive power and ability to transform anything-an object, a piece of furniture, an architectural element-into the best possible version of itself.

As architects, we have the task of understanding what kind of sensory perception and consequent emotional reaction the use of color in a specific environment can bring, in order to produce the ideal conditions for the well-being of those who will inhabit it. Thus, color is an expression of the complex needs to fill the needs and desires of the users of spaces, and it is necessary to use it while always keeping in mind that ethics and aesthetics must be respected in order for the architectural work to be in balance, not just formal.

Collection Luxury Lifestyle Magazine #3 Dicembre 2023
Author Cristiana Winkler, The RE/MAX Crystal, Roma

PARIOLI: THE CAPITAL’S DISTRICT FROM ITS ORIGINS

Rome is rich in districts, but Parioli, among the earliest born in the early 1900s, is recognized by many as one of the most important in the Eternal City. The roots of the Parioli district go back to ancient Rome, when the neighborhood did not yet exist and in its place stretched a promontory known as “Monte Peraiolo,” which was intended for the cultivation of pear trees; hence the name “Peraioli,” later changed to Parioli. During the period of the Roman Empire, this place became a resort and resting place for patrician families and the Roman nobility, who built their villas and palaces here to escape the chaos of the city center and enjoy the tranquility of the surrounding countryside. This process of urbanization and transformation led to the birth of the Parioli district as we know it today.

URBAN DEVELOPMENT

In the early 1950s, the Parioli presented itself as a neighborhood inhabited by the upper-middle class, mostly officers and prominent figures of Fascism. These were the years when elegant mansions and small villas were being erected, set in green stately settings, still visible today as a historical and cultural symbol of this neighborhood’s past. The district has always been the residence of wealthy personalities, merchants, entrepreneurs and entertainment and television personalities. Even the cinema has taken advantage of it, shooting films and generating attention for books and magazines, thanks to the historical value of the area in which there are, the remains of the ancient Sabine city “Antemnae,” the Roman villa of the Auditorium and the Catacombs of the Giordani and Sant’Ilaria. Here, after World War II, prominent Roman figures in politics and finance, but also in culture, art and cinema, had their exclusive villas built. By the 1960s, this area was already an “in” zone, a district synonymous with sophistication, a place where the Roman Dolce Vita took place. Many artists from the worlds of music and entertainment drew their springboard right to the Piper Club, a well-known historic pariolino venue of 1960s music not far from the focal point of the district, the squares Ungheria and Euclide, home to trendy clubs and classy restaurants.

THE PARIOLI DISTRICT TODAY

Tree-lined boulevards, stately mansions, and lush parks make Parioli an elegant neighborhood, with its refined atmosphere, architectural beauty, and amenities offered to residents. Indeed, everyone would like to live in Parioli because of its chic charm and convenient adjacency to the historic center. There is no shortage of points of interest and cultural aggregation in the Parioli district, such as Renzo Piano’s Auditorium, the Sport Palace and the Flaminio Stadium. Sport reigns supreme here, thanks in part to the presence of sports facilities in the Acqua Acetosa area with the Circolo Canottieri Aniene, Stadio delle Aquile – now Stadio Paolo Rossi – and the Giulio Onesti Sports Center. The Parioli district is home to numerous embassies and the prestigious private Luiss University, surrounded by greenery, whose crowning glory is the Villa Borghese park, the fifth largest in the capital, where it is possible to stroll in nature among manicured gardens within walking distance of the Roman city center.

Behold, Parioli, the area that stretches along the banks of the Tiber River, a stone’s throw from the RAI headquarters, is all of this, Rome’s most renowned district, a symbol of the capital’s charm and prestige. An ode to elegance, a place where beauty, history and luxury come together in a harmonious symphony and where style is at home.