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ACTIU Berbegal y Formas, S.A.
Colour as a tool for designing and transforming spaces

Colour as a tool for designing and transforming spaces

JULY 2019 | 3 minutes

Converted into an extension of our home, offices have made colour one of their main hallmarks. Not only to achieve a strong sense of personality (often through the use of corporate colours), but also as a tool of comfort and emotional wellbeing.

I n fact, colour has a positive or negative impact on the environment and the people who inhabit it, conditioning our perception of the space and objects, and directly affecting concentration, productivity and imagination.

Directly related to the user's experience, the psychology of colour plays a fundamental role in the design of any space. In addition to evoking emotions, it can vary our perception, visually distorting size and proportions depending on which shade is used.

Colour is increasingly being treated as an inseparable part of architecture, not only aesthetically, but as a psychic and sensorial element.

In any project, before choosing a certain range of colours, materials or textures, it is important to analyse both the users and their activity, as well as the sensations you want to provoke.

Therefore, in order to achieve an adequate level of comfort at work, it is essential to use colour intelligently, through tones that incorporate healthy properties for workers and provide them with added comfort. It's not just what you see, but also what you feel that creates a space. 

Together with natural lighting and ventilation, views, plants and outdoor spaces, colour is essential if you want to connect with nature. The growing size of the developed areas in our cities makes it necessary for the buildings themselves to incorporate natural spaces inside of them: it has been proven that workers' wellbeing increases in environments that incorporate colours that are present in the natural world.

Moods are directly related to colours. While shades such as green, blue and yellow promote wellbeing and creativity, the use of bright colours, such as red or orange, should be done with caution, using them only on specific elements that you want to highlight. However, and although warm tones are directly associated with energy and movement, and cold tones with balance and peace of mind, we must take into account how cultural, geographical and personal preferences influence the perception of colour.

To do so, and in order to enhance the wellbeing, creativity and commitment of their workers, offices must carefully choose the colours used in the areas for concentration, collaboration, learning, socialisation and disconnection.

Concentration

To achieve the harmony and balance required by concentration spaces, you must use light colours with a predominant tone such as blue, beige or brown. With a strong relaxing effect, all of them convey some much-needed peace of mind, by decreasing people's blood pressure and their heartbeat.

Collaboration

Fresh and vivid, colours inspired by nature help the space to be perceived as a healthy place, full of life, light, joy and energy, which stimulates collaboration. Sand, mustard and blue tones, which remind us of the sun, sand, mountains and water of the Mediterranean Sea, stimulate communication, creativity and inspiration.

Socialisation

Dyed in soft colours, socialisation environments take us back to traditional recreational spaces such as the courtyard or the Mediterranean square. The chosen range of colours, in terracotta, green and beige tones, which symbolise the land, tradition, safety and proximity to nature, recreates informal environments for social life.

Learning

Green is the perfect colour for educational rooms, where a large amount of information must be assimilated. Representing nature, freshness, fertility, growth and hope, and with with proven relaxation and balancing effects, this colour opens the mind, favouring concentration and abstract thinking.

Privacy

The goal of private areas is to create a "refuge" where the mind can disconnect and get away from its immediate surroundings. An adequate balance of colours is essential for doing so, using earthy and blue tones that are calm, soft and inspired by nature, which are both stimulating and relaxing at the same time.

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