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Image library

Image library

Here you will find all the main images that have been used in Building in Its Environment to illustrate specific points.

When an area of colour is increased, such as from the size of a colour chip on a colour card to the size of a building, the resulting and radical increase in area means the same colour appears much darker than the small sample.
Effect of size
Change in the relationship of size and colour operates over distance when, for example a building seen in the middle distance and therefore appearing smaller than when viewed close at hand, appears lighter in colour. However, as we move away from the building, its colour will appear progressively darker and less saturated. On moving further away from the building, the colour will begin to lighten and appear less colourful until, when viewed in the far distance, its colour will turn bluish – the result of a perceptual effect known as ‘atmospheric haze’. This is caused by the filtering effect of tiny air-borne particles in the atmosphere.
Effect of distance
Light and colour are fundamental and indivisible characteristics which define architectural form and help shape our understanding of the built environment. The dynamic of light results from the movement of the sun across the sky, together with its angle of incidence to the Earth’s curvature. This causes the quality of its colour-rendering properties to constantly shift and change over time: thus, early morning light appears yellowish, then becomes bluish at midday and tends to redden at sunset.
Quality of light
Radically different colour-rendering properties can occur after dark when street lighting comes into effect. This is when the colour of a building can be distorted out of all recognition, such as under the orange glow from sodium lighting or the greenish glow from mercury lighting.
Quality of light 2
Experienced through the incidence of reflected light, this occurs when strong sunlight scatters and reflects colour from nearby surfaces to tint the existing colour of the object building. When it occurs, it appears as a shimmer of one colour over the surface of another. The resultant colour mixture on the eye causes a new colour expression which is usually unintended by the designer.
Reflected light
The surface of an object has an influence on its appearance in terms of reflecting and scattering light. Surfaces can be designed to achieve a certain effect, which may vary between subtle and stark. The visual effect of texture depends upon the intensity and direction of light and the position of the viewer.
Texture
Colour blending is often accompanied by the attendant need to reduce the impression of a large building mass. When this occurs, a kind of formal ‘camouflage’ can be applied which, enlisting smaller units of colour, breaks down the overall form of a building into a fragmented and a more visually digestible version of itself.
Colour blending
This is a strategy which celebrates the architectural form in colour to provide a focal point. Often deployed to highlight the more interesting parts of a building, contrasting colours essentially respond to the basic human urge to decorate and the need to celebrate the building form as an eye-catching object.
Colour contrasting
While a colour may appear to blend or harmonise in one instance or when viewed from one angle, when the viewer moves from A to B the colour could be seen to create new relationships or even contrast with the surrounding colours. In the realm of aesthetic theory, this colour shift stretches the static relationships between the perceived colours, so-called synchronic rhyme, to a new dynamic and temporal dimension of diachronic rhyme.
Colour shift
A further consideration when developing a colour strategy is the deployed extent of a colour range. For instance, a single hue is often used to lessen the impact of the appearance of a highly articulated, complex form. This is a design move which seeks visual cohesion.
Colour and form
Colour indexing uses contrasting hues to clearly define the structural elements of a building. This is an architectural diagramming process which discriminates between the working parts of a building. It has roots in antiquity, when, for example, the stepped layers of ziggurats were colour-coded and when many ancient Greek temples were colour-washed to differentiate columns from pediments. Today, colour indexing is commonly found on ‘high-tech’ buildings, where rich hues denote elements which hold and support, while more subdued hues denote hung or carried elements.
Colour indexing
Similar to colour branding is the use of colour to symbolise a concept or association that relates (the use of) the building to its context or to its function. A common example of the former is the widespread use of blue on buildings near or associated with the sea.
Colour symbolism
Using horizontal and vertical colour banding or a profile panel arrangement, it is possible to perceptually stretch a façade and change its apparent shape. Examples of this are horizontal bands which reduce the apparent height of a building and vertical bands reducing the apparent breadth.
Jointing strategies
Architectural wall and façade panels usually necessitate both horizontal and vertical joints which can be used to form a matrix-type appearance.
Jointing strategies 2
Pre-finished steel cladding is available in a variety of profiles or cross-sections of the steel sheet. At one extreme the cladding can be perfectly flat, whilst the introduction of profile can be in various forms from the standard trapezoidal peaks and troughs to more specialist feature profiles such as half-round or sawtooth protrusions. The type, size and orientation of the profile can have a significant effect on the final look of the building, while with flat-panel and minimal profiles it is the jointing strategy which imparts the character.
Profile
Colour is perhaps the most commonly used way of communicating a corporate brand image.
Colour branding
The size and form of a building can be used to reinforce values such as authority and strength and make a connection with the visitor. The Imperial War Museum of the North is a contemporary and imposing building, provoking strong feelings which are continued internally with the theme and content of the museum.
Reinforce values
The size and form of a building can be used to reinforce the image of a specific location or city. The Millennium Stadium occupies a central location within Cardiff and provides a real symbol of the city and its cosmopolitan culture.
Reinforce the image
The size and form of a building can be used to raise the profile of a particular location. The Lowry provides a real showcase for Salford Quays, and stands out from the area around it.
Raise the profile
Glazing can suggest openness and build a perception of being able to see into a company and what it can offer.
Use of glazing
Pre-finished steel can suggest strength and function as well as innovation.
Use of pre-finished steel
Light steel framing modular units can support values of function, efficiency and consistency which owners would like associated with hotel accommodation. This is further reinforced in the example below by the use of rainscreen panels in pre-finished steel.
Use of modular units
Metamerism refers to the situation where two colour samples which match when seen under one light, appear different under another. In the laboratory, using a calibrated light box, a strong visual match can be given in addition to an electronic match. However, once in natural or artificial light, differences between the two may become apparent. These are frequently associated with changes in texture or surface condition altering the appearance.
Metamerism
One area with more tangible benefits to architecture is that of self-cleaning coatings. Pollution, grime and atmospheric conditions will take their toll on even the most pristine of buildings with the original appearance deteriorating gradually. Self-cleaning glass is available and it may only be a short time before this is available in pre-finished steel. This has obvious benefits for external cladding and could reduce maintenance and provide a clean building appearance over a longer period of time.
Self cleaning
The ratio of capital cost: to operating cost: to the value of business carried out in a building has been calculated by the Royal Academy of Engineering as 1:5:200, for an office building over a 20 year period.
Ratio of costs to value
In any evaluation of a product’s sustainability credentials, it is important to consider the whole lifetime of that product – from cradle to grave. The sustainable loop provides an overview of all stages of a products life from raw materials through to utilisation in a building and end of life.
Sustainable loop
Often referred to as the ‘Triple Bottom Line’, the three dimensions of sustainability are, improving social welfare, maintaining economic viability, and protecting the environment.
The three dimensions of sustainablility
Colorcoat® products can replicate more traditional but cost-prohibitive materials, such as slate, copper or stone. They can be used to respect the vernacular architecture of an area.
Colorcoat can replicate more cost prohibitive materials
The choice of pre-finished steel product is a key decision in the overall performance of a building system. Pre-finished steel is manufactured by a coil coater and then sold to customers such as panel and profile manufacturers who fabricate the coil into the final cladding system.
Material flow
Pre-finished steel is manufactured within a continuous process which guarantees high quality standards through controlling the coating thickness, colour, gloss, adhesion and corrosion resistance. The coating process can be considered within three zones: entry, process and exit.
The process
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