Blue

What we mean by a colour depends on who we are – our references, our culture, our past, our life. A single sliver of colour can transform how we view a space: what we think it stands for, and the boundaries we place on its potential.

Sometimes what one person sees as a detail is not a little thing but something which dominates another person’s response to a place. So, for some, colour is a little thing – for others it is an overwhelming aspect of their enjoyment of a space. Google the word ‘blue’ and you get the official website for a boy band, an Edinburgh restaurant, and some Wikipedia science. Colour is not just in the eye of the beholder but also in their brain.

Almost always, the people who use buildings ask for more colour – and we listen, and reflect, and select cool greys and whites ‘with a touch of white’ – rather than listen to the subtext of their pleas. Blue is not always blue.