Through the Colour Lens
Chapter 1
H I S T O R Y A N D C U L T U R E
A short history of colour in architecture and design
Influenced by both necessity and availability , the application of colour in architecture and interior design has evolved over the centuries . The human instinct to decorate self and the built environment has spurred creative colour use as far back as prehistoric times . Also linked with religious symbolism , for the Egyptians gold was the colour of sunlight and creation and colours represented various gods . To the Greeks and the Romans , colours were an extension of the natural palette found in the Mediterranean world ; strong and intense . During the age of Pericles colour was thought to have symbolised mixtures of sun fire , air and water .
For many centuries , the most widely used natural pigments were extracted from soil and rocks , plants , insects ( for example , cochineal ) and animals . Ash and chalk were also basic sources of colour . An example is Suffolk Pink , made by diluting whitewash with buttermilk and pig ’ s blood . Since Suffolk ( UK ) has a reputation from the medieval period for its production of colour , it deserves discussion here as a critical element of colour history .
For some centuries now , Suffolk has been renowned for its pink-washed houses and cottages . During the medieval period it was thriving and , as with many other counties , profited well from the cloth trade . In Long Melford ( Suffolk ) alone , there were more than thirty weaving businesses in the town with associated craftsmen such as dyers , who made pigments from plants from the surrounding countryside . Yellows and greens came from nettles and cow-parsley , reds from ladies bedstraw , and mauves from damsons and sloes . During this time , pink was created and , as a result , what many medieval moated halls and cottages with low doors and steep thatched roofs now share in common in Suffolk is what is now officially termed as Suffolk Pink , which can be seen in ‘ shell-pink ’, ‘ rose-pink ’, ‘ geranium ’, and ‘ raspberry ’.
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