Literary Dose #6

"[...] we see an infatuation with drab, gray surfaces of raw concrete. Everyone I ask (with the notable exception of some architects) finds such surfaces morbid and depressing; and yet architects keep building them. Even worse, they go to great lengths to prevent their users from painting them with color so as to stop the deadening effect. Where paint is allowed to be used, again it is often restricted to depressing shades of gray. This is in stark contrast to historical and vernacular architectures around the world. The greatest buildings of the past are very colorful (or were before their color faded from weathering). Owner-built dwellings employ all the color they can find to intensify visual response from wall surfaces. Color appears to satisfy a fundamental human need, as shown by children's art (before they are conditioned to a gray industrial world) and folk art."

- Nikos A. Salingaros from A Theory of Architecture (2006)