I colori delle case

192 pages, ital./engl.

What gives unity to an interior design project? Beyond the coherence of materials, it is the use of color that gives character and identity to domestic space; each architect, each era has its own palette, where the floor, walls, and ceiling are composed with the dominant hues of the chosen materials.

If the twentieth century and early rationalism fought their battle between pastel shades and primary colors, the weight of the times and of war was tinged with greens and browns. The explosion of optimism brought back blues, mauves, and pinks, while the Viennese use of black and white was recovered to emphasize the graphic quality of forms. Gio Ponti is brighter, Viganò more elegant, Sottsass more contrasting. When the home becomes an artist’s canvas, color is its instrument. Some architects are directly associated with a particular tone, and vice versa: Caccia Dominioni’s red is so different from the red that invades homes in 1968. The percentage and density of color increase more and more up to the 1970s, when the monochrome home is completely immersed in dark blues and browns.