WHITEWASHING

I generally advise against whitewashing buildings. In architecture, whitewashing often occurs when the new owners of an old building want to erase its history, to create a ‘blank canvas’.

Whitewashing really means: to gloss over, to try and avoid scrutiny or proper examination. To whitewash: to completely defeat an opponent; to cover something up, to deny or undermine difference. Whitewash: a paint made of lime, used as a disinfectant, to cleanse buildings during the plague, to counteract germs and disease in hospitals.

When taken to an absolute extreme, white environments are anti-human, anti-nature, and anti-social. White shines best when in the companionship of other colours. It’s the interplay of colour that creates magic and joy.

As an old white guy once said: “The calcimine [whitewash] glows due to the wall surface that is dark (umbers), due to the wall that is warm (ochres), due to the wall that yields (blues etc.) …”