Month: February 2012

What’s up with ceilings?

- February 17, 2012 -

The story is as old as paint. You move in somewhere new or just decide  your place needs a new look. Out come the paint chips, discussions about base color, accent walls, moldings, windows  and doors ensue. But what about that forgotten ceiling. Usually just left to their own white devices, ceilings are often ignored for their color potential. Ceilings can have a presence all their own.

Via Apartment Therapy

This stunning red violet  beauty is by designer Sara Story.

Via Apartment Therapy

 Or why not bring the heavens down to earth with a sky blue ceiling. Painting the ceiling can add to a vibrantly colorful space, but it can also subtly warm a neutral zone.

But by now you might be thinking that walls are looked at far more as we are walking around our homes and offices but what about those places where ceilings take center stage. The hospital, for example, is full of people lying in bed staring at the ceiling. Blankness is hardly an uplifting visual.

Hospital ceiling via Made in China

Hospital rooms should be designed for healing, and mental stimulation goes a long way to keeping patients engaged.We understand that happy welcoming environments help children when in the hospital and strive to make children’s wards friendly and cheerful. Why not the whole hospital? Adults do not grow out of the need to feel at ease in new places while experiencing stressful diagnostics or frightening procedures.

Via Soliant Health

The above image is of Alfred DuPont Hospital for Children in Delaware. It was ranked as one of the most beautiful hospitals by Soliant Health.

“[The] dazzling domes full of luminescent stars in the hallways conjure-up images of the Hogwarts Great Hall ceiling from Harry Potter. What child  wouldn’t want to stay here?”

Also on the list was Providence Regional Cancer Partnership in Everett, Washington, with this amazing ceiling treatment.  

Via Soliant Health

 MRI’s are very loud and can be overwhelming so this MRI room is fitted with a swirling blue aquarium ceiling. What better way to relax before or recover after the long MRI scan time than gazing at sea life. 

 What colorful ceiling treatment could  take your mind off your next medical treatment or enliven your home? 
  

– Emily Eifler, Writer, Colour Studio
– Jill Pilaroscia, Principal, Colour Studio

The Color of Light

- February 9, 2012 -
Manhattan – Via Kw-ny on Flickr
Architectural lighting is an important consideration when planning the color scheme of a large building. Once the sun has gone down and painted colors and natural materials fall mute, lighting brings buildings to life in new way. New York paints a beautiful portrait awash in the glow of the rising sun but when the topography is no longer bathed in golden yellow and warm copper glow,   each structure fades back to grayed mid-tones.
Shanghai – See the whole panorama via Wired New York
When we paint epic cityscapes in our heads we tend to create something similar to this shot of the cloudy Shanghai mega-city. Grey, silver and black hues dominate the visual horizon in every direction. Studded here and there are rivers of headlights and  the faint glow of ambient lights.
Some cites especially in Asia, are glittering with post sunset color. The lights of advertisements and architectural lighting mix with the glow of street lamps and passing cars.
Tokyo – Via Wallpapervortex
Architectural lighting designers allow buildings to participate in this glorious polychromatic display of nighttime color. Take this example below:
Hong Kong – The Nexxus via Laservision
This is the Nexxus building in Hong Kong.
“Laservision was engaged by Mutual Capital Limited to create, design and install a state of the art dynamic lighting design that would demand the attention of passersby, whilst maintaining the natural grandeur and iconic physical characteristics of the Nexxus Building in Hong Kong.” 
A custom LED layout was created to cover the skin of the Nexxus with changing and flowing color. The lights are placed  to both accentuate the existing structure and  redefine its shape with negative and positive spaces. The building becomes an active changing participant in the cityscape instead of a static on looker.

What are your favorite colorful architectural lighting projects?

– Emily Eifler, Writer, Colour Studio
– Jill Pilaroscia, Principal, Colour Studio