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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
By Elke Hildebrandt