COLOUR CREATES CONNECTION
Trauma Informed Design Colour Palette
COLOUR IN BIOPHILIC + TRAUMA INFORMED DESIGN
I am currently working on 8 different residential colour projects, so unsurprisingly, houses are front of mind and I’ve been reflecting on where these projects are leading me at the moment.
I’ve found myself talking more frequently about creating a ‘colour landscape’ within each house, and designing more complex palettes than I have in the past. Having designed the colour transformations of over 30 houses over the past 12 years, I’ve grown increasingly confident about the positive effects good colour design has on the day to day lives of my clients.
Recently I have had the privilege to work with the Hobart Women’s Shelter, and architects Emily Taylor and Chris Clinton, on a prototype housing project for women and children fleeing domestic violence. I’ve designed colour palettes for these houses using Trauma Informed Design principles.
Trauma Informed Design shares many principles with Biophilic Design and as I learn more about both, it’s increasingly clear to me (and backed up by a growing body of scientific studies) that colour plays a central role in design for health and well-being. Human beings have evolved in close and complex relationship with the natural world, and quite simply our brains function better when stimulated and soothed by interaction with complex natural systems.
Why then are so many people living in white plasterboard boxes? My dislike of white boxes is not about aesthetics. The colour white has its place and its uses in architecture, but the over use of plain/bland/monotone surfaces is actually bad for your health, because the space created lacks the sensory complexity which nourishes the human brain.
In a nutshell, Biophilic design mimics qualities and properties found in nature to create building interiors and environments which are good for human health. Colour selection is a key element in creating rich sensory environments. Another key principle of Biophilic design is connection to place.
This is why I always begin with site analysis when designing a colour palette. Even for interior projects. After all, almost every interior has some connection with an exterior and by making this explicit we are developing our cultural ‘connection to country’.
In my experience, when the colours of an interior space are in harmony with the external environment, which may be a view of a garden, the sky, the cityscape or landscape seen beyond, our minds are soothed and delighted, we feel more connected to the environment and the results are universally pleasing. When we use colour to set up dynamic and harmonious relationships across spaces, the results will be pleasing despite individual colour preferences or recent colour trends - because our brains are attuned to harmony and pattern.
The idea goes further than the simply aesthetic. Connection to the world outside is important for health, connection engenders care, care engenders more connection.
Colour creates connection.
Housing prototype design by Core Collective and Chris Clinton Architects, for the Hobart Women’s Shelter. Colour design by Lymesmith.