Color is the most important compositional tool in the architect’s hands.

Light and color cannot be divided. The surrounding world looks colored due to the light rays which are reflected from the horizon and different objects. Human eyesight has the great feature to perceive the world in color. But color may cause not only positive emotions but negative ones as well. The task for the architect, who develops the composition of colors, is to achieve maximum of the color assistance for the improvement of human life.

Color may also serve for visual change of the proportions of the room,  for improvement of it’s microclimate.

It has got the ability to highlight the plastic qualities of the accommodation, it can facilitate the organization of space and be a means of direction. There is an opportunity to let in a certain rhythm with the help of color, to create color accents in the places of composite nodes, to achieve the psychological interaction of the interiors. The development of color schemes in architecture can be divided into three stages.

The first stage

The choice of color gamma in the system of spaces or individual space. The color choice is usually connected with orientation of the building or the interior apartments. Rooms, oriented to the North, are usually painted in warm colors: cream light brown, apricot etc.

It’s advisable to paint rooms, where natural daylight does not get into, in warm or neutral-warm colors.

Coldish color is appropriate if there is a necessity to create a calming microclimate. Cold colors that are blue, gray-blue and green reduce the excitation, so they are used for painting the bedrooms in kids institutions, classrooms, etc.

Large rooms shouldn’t be painted in pure satiate colors. A person feels sick and gets tired quickly in such rooms. It’s advisable to paint in a saturated clean color only small details such as lamps, vases, panels and elements of furniture.

The desired psychological effect can be achieved by using certain colors. For example, the introduction of the red color into the interior creates the impression of solemnity or festivity. Contrasting combination of colors has a stimulant effect on the human beings.

The second stage

The development of color solutions – selection of appropriate color correlation, determining

contrast and degrees of brightness.

The third stage

The choice of materials for decoration and selection of light sources. The architect should consider the qualities of the decorative materials, texture features and natural and artificial lighting. The last factor is important because some colors are distorted in the rays of artificial lighting, the spectrum of which differs from white daylight. For example, incandescent bulbs that have a yellow emission spectrum, or some fluorescent lamps with cold emission spectrum (LCES) significantly distort the color of the room.

Psychological color theory takes into account the difference in the perception of color by people of various sex and age, creating the illusion of heaviness and lightness, heat and cold. This theory must be applied for painting of premises, where people spend most of their time: residential and industrial rooms, in the educational and medical institutions, canteens etc.

Thus, the balanced combination of colors depends on the knowledge, experience and intuition of the architect-artist.