A riot of colour

Yellow, blue, red: colourful variety is a foolproof way to be noticed. A side benefit is that colours offset the monotonous greys of the city, giving each building its own unique identity.

Colourful identity

UN Studio has developed a remedy for the impersonal uniformity of high-rises in Asian cities. The façades of more than 20 apartment blocks in Daegu, the fourth-largest city in South Korea, have been visually woven together using multi-coloured pixelated motifs. This reinforces identity and establishes a sense of community.


Courtesy of Hyundai

Coloured residential

The Comfort Town residential complex in Kiev, Ukraine, has been known for its colourful aesthetics since 2018. The project features quaint building silhouettes, apartments with interesting floor plans and pedestrian-friendly courtyards. The design idea is for the amazing colours to impart a positive mood.


KAN Development

Eye-catching composition

Museum Garage in the Design District of Miami, Florida, was inspired by the surrealist parlour game Exquisite Corpse. Five architectural and design firms created the façade with no knowledge of what the other artists had drawn. The result is an extraordinarily colourful composition on a grand scale. One of them showing vibrantly-coloured components flowing together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.


Miguel Guzman//magensubliminal

Tourist hotspot

Choi Hung Estate is one of the oldest residential developments in Hong Kong. The complex has also become an overnight Instagram sensation for tourists. The most popular view features the rainbow apartment buildings with the colourful basketball court in front of them.


Travis Feuerbacher/Getty Images

New landmark

The Fair-Haired Dumbbell in Portland, Oregon, has been showing off its bright, hand-painted cladding since 2017. The original artwork on all eight sides of the six-storey towers of the retail and office building attracts a lot of attention. The design, originally conceived as “gift wrapping”, has made the building a landmark and symbol of Portland's new architecture.


Guerrilla Development

By Elke Hildebrandt


Title image: Guerrilla Development

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