A CASE FOR COLOUR
The colourful transformation of a down-at-heel Ayrshire mining village has had such a positive effect on the community that it has architect Edward Taylor musing on how it could benefit others
Can colourful buildings make a real change to communities?
Colour is fundamental to life and to humanity. It is nature’s universal non-verbal language. Pigments are among mankind’s earliest artefacts and they have been one of civilisation’s most precious commodities. So what makes it so compelling yet at times controversial?
Karen Haller, author of The Little Book of Colour states that, ‘Colour is arguably the simplest means we have at our disposal to enhance positive emotions and increase well-being, and it can do all this in an instant. It can help us to feel more connected to ourselves and to the people around us. When we feel connected, we feel happier about who we are. And when we feel happier about who we are we can begin to lead happier and more fulfilled lives.’
Colour can even affect us physiologically. A room painted blue requires a higher thermostat setting than the same room painted a warm colour, but the colour blue is also associated with clarity of thought. Red has the ability to raise blood pressure through its visceral impact. Green is restful and symbolic of wellbeing and the environment.
White is a reflection of light’s full spectrum and whether in frost, snow or snowdrops, the additional brightness can be uplifting in winter, although it is never a pure ‘Brilliant White’. The cheery yellows of spring flowers herald the return of full colour. Browns, greys and blacks on the other hand, where dominant, absorb precious light and can contribute to our seasonal glumness.
And so to a beautiful corner of Ayrshire. Looking out over the Doon Valley among the foothills of the Southern Uplands, marking the way to the enchanted Ness Glen, sits a village that has recently been cited in the Scottish Parliament as a model of community empowerment and the ‘place principle’. Bellsbank is a rural, former mining community that has endured much but there is now a growing sense of hope for the future, which draws from its natural and latent assets.
After the Second World War colour in architecture came to be seen as an unnecessary frivolity and its intrinsic capacity to influence our emotions was forgotten. While Bellsbank benefits from varied topography and an attractive outlook, its houses were of a uniform and light-sapping cement grey. Some had become as black as bonded whisky warehouses.
Typically the replacement finish in a council refurbishment would be similarly uniform in the name of cost and efficiency. As custodians at Bellsbank, East Ayrshire Council were already undertaking a programme of housing improvement when they decided to trial a more collaborative approach and came to embrace the transformative potential of colour across more than 200 houses, harnessing it as a means to engage with the community as individuals.
A palette of carefully selected colours and finishes was arrived at from scores of sample panels and through consultation, from the more muted to the richer hues. Every house and street was considered in terms of colour balance and appearance, combined with resident preferences. Where once colour was all but absent, it has now become an outward symbol of inner renewal and growing self-confidence among the community.
A number of grassroots initiatives have been established in the village and taken on new leases of life thanks to the drive of local residents and the support of the council. Bellsbank was declared the unanimous winner of the 2019 Scottish Civic Trust’s My Place Awards, and described as, currently ‘the most important village in Scotland’.
Communities of colourful buildings are celebrated and enjoyed around the world. Often they are not the most expensively built. These include Bo-Kaap in Cape Town, the island town of Burano near Venice, the ‘painted ladies’ of San Francisco and the chromatic houses of Louisville – described as one of America’s great comeback stories. We might also learn from other countries of a northern clime, including the brightly painted wooden houses of Scandinavia.
Tobermory is probably Scotland’s most celebrated colourful town, thanks partly to it being chosen as the location for a popular children’s television programme. And, while it now has an additional inland cousin, the context is different, and the bright, reflected light of the seaside can accommodate stronger hues whereas at Bellsbank the colours are softer.
With the advent of manufactured synthetic pigments, colour has been democratised. It is said that humans are capable of distinguishing 10 million or more colour variations. The colour choices available therefore can be bewildering. We instinctively find some combinations discordant without quite knowing why. Principles of colour, however, can be learned and indeed the primary school at Bellsbank led the way in asking their children to think about colour in relation to nature and to invent names for some of the subtle shades proposed for use.
While there is now a growing body of research on our emotional responses to colours and their transformative potential, the key lesson from Bellsbank perhaps has been the value of collaborative working to enable some of the inner qualities of a place and a community to shine through.
Typically the replacement finish in a council refurbishment would be uniform