Chromatic Architecture

Colour is one of the most meaningful and expressive elements that can be used in the design of buildings. It is also the most neglected: students are rarely taught about it, and many architects are fearful of it.

Chromatic Architecture explores the beauty of colour. How it is crafted into the fabric of buildings, opening our eyes to the sensuous and delightful world that exists when it is embraced in the making of space.

By featuring intriguing and rich examples of architecture worldwide across time, authors Adam Nathaniel Furman and Kate Mazade demonstrate the vital agency of colour. Through pithy texts and a kaleidoscope of imagery, the book not only demystifies colour, but communicates its potency as a design tool; how it plays a particularly important role in the embodiment of cultural and material identity, and how it uplifts all who come into contact with it.

At once a primer, an inspirational reference book and an object of beauty, Chromatic Architecture is essential reading for designers and enthusiasts alike.

Featured projects:

Casa Vicens, Spain

Gellért Baths, Hungary

Guardian Building (Union Trust Building), Michigan, USA

Nissay Theatre, Japan

Shah Mosque, Iran

Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple, India

Hoescht Administration Building of Hoechst, Germany

Adam Nathaniel Furman is a London based artist and designer who trained in architecture, and now works in public art, furniture and product design. He co-founded the Saturated Space Research Cluster at London's Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture (2011-2021) on colour in architecture and urbanism with Antoni Malinowski; taught at Central Saint Martins College of Art, London; has work in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Victoria in Southbank, Australia, the National Museum of Norway in Oslo and the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, amongst others; was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by RIBA for his contribution to the field of architecture in 2024; and with Joshua Mardell, he co-edited the award-winning 2022 book Queer Spaces, An Atlas of LGBTQIA+ Places & Stories, also for RIBA Publishing.

Kate Mazade is a journalist, author and editor based in Fort Worth, Texas, where she covers architecture, design, arts and culture for national and international publications. Her writing has appeared in Metropolis, Dezeen, Madame Architect,* Architectural Record, *The Architect’s Newspaper, AN Interior and American Theatre. She published her first book, Dearest Babe, Letters from a World War II Flight Surgeon, co-authored with Kelly Farris Mazade in 2022, and served as the developmental editor for Designed for Habitat: New Directions for Habitat for Humanity, written by David Hinson and Justin Miller and published by Routledge in 2023. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Auburn University, Alabama, and Master of Arts in Arts Journalism from Syracuse University, New York.