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A new exhibition, ‘Colour Memories’, has been opened online by the Museum of Architecture

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Words by Sophie Tolhurst

A new exhibition, ‘Colour Memories’, by the pop-up and online Museum of Architecture, explores the evocative power of colour, with contributions from 20 architects.

In an introduction to the exhibition Owen Hopkins, director of the Farrell Centre at Newcastle University, explains that the exhibition takes an opposing view to the mainstream architectural history that ‘marginalises’ the use of colour.

‘Throughout architectural history, actively colourful buildings have tended to be the exception – or at least have been made to appear so in the standard histories. And where and when colourful buildings do exist, they are often overlooked, denigrated or even ridiculed.

‘This exhibition takes the opposing view. It celebrates colour in architecture and explores its centrality to the work of a range of contemporary practitioners, each of whom has a distinctive position on how and why they use it.’

These colour memories range from the green tiling of Victorian public buildings and pubs from Allford Hall Monaghan Morris; Asif Khan on being colour-blind and the colour (and scent) of henna; Charles Holland describing opening a fresh tin of paint and the buttercup yellow of Sir John Soane’s Breakfast Room; Sarah Akigbogun of Studio Aki on the intense red soil of West Africa; and Unscene Architecture on the landscapes of Hieronymous Bosch’s painting The Garden of Earthly Delights.

The digital exhibition can be found at the Museum of Architecture’s website for free: museumofarchitecture.org/colour-memories.html

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The Museum of Architecture was founded by Melissa Woolford, and this exhibition is sponsored by Axalta Powder Coatings.