Yacine Gouaich

In physical environments and cultural landscapes, we most often deal not with separate colors, but with color combinations. When choosing a color, we usually try to “fit” it into a preexisting color context, making the new color combination harmonious. Yet are the “laws” of color harmony fundamental to our shared cognitive architecture, or are they cultural products that vary from country to country? To answer these questions we conducted an experiment with 599 participants aged 18 to 76 from eight different countries, including Algeria (MA = 26.2 years; SD = 8.8; 49 men, 26 women), Belarus (MA = 19.8 years; SD = 9.1; 19 men, 63 women), Italy (MA = 29.0 years; SD = 12.8; 23 men, 67 women), Mexico (MA = 20.0 years; SD = 7.0; 34 men, 23 women), Nigeria (MA = 34.7 years; SD = 10.5; 29 men, 32 women), Russia (MA = 24.6 years; SD = 6.3; 17 men, 72 women), Saudi Arabia (MA = 24.5 years; SD = 8.6; 28 men, 38 women), and Chile (MA = 34.3 years; SD = 15.1; 35 men, 43 women). To create experimental stimuli, we used 10 color combinations composed by the Russian avant-garde artist Mikhail Matyushin and his disciples for the Reference Book of Color (1932) based on shades that were typical in architectural design—yellow ochre, light umber, light ochre, and burnt umber. We removed the “intermediary” linking color from each of the selected color triads and asked participants to adjust the color of this band according to their liking. Mapping 2995 color choices into CIELAB and CIELCh color space to identify their chromatic characteristics (hue, lightness, and chroma), we demonstrate graphically that color triads in different cultures have a different “geometry” in CIELAB color space and on the color circle. We conclude that the revealed patterns of these relationships reflect cross-cultural “shifts” in human perception of color harmony. The analysis presented in this paper will facilitate opportunities for architects, designers, and other color professionals to create culturally specific harmonic color combinations in urban environments.

Color combination criteria are said to entail an affective response in interior design. We investigated the color combination criteria that orient the preference of current observers, after Le Corbusier's 1931 Salubra keyboards. We explored the similarity/contrast in Natural Color System (NCS) hue, blackness, and chromaticness in 312 combinations with four colors, two backgrounds and two accent colors, coming from 43 individual colors, on the walls of a simulated interior of a bedroom from the Swiss Pavilion (Le Corbusier, 1930‐1931). Participants were 644 students of architecture and interior design in Western Europe and Near East, who evaluated with a Likert scale their preference for virtual images via an online survey. Results indicate that the most preferred color combinations are those with hues closer in the color wheel, being the similarity between hues in the backgrounds more important than in the accent colors, and with NCS B30G to G as the most preferred hues. Observers preferred color compositions with blackness under 10% and similar blackness between the two background colors, together with a certain blackness contrast between these background colors and the two color accents. Similarly, observers liked color compositions with low chromaticness and low chromaticness difference among the four colors of the composition.

Ksourare original architectural models of fortified villages located in the north of Africa. They offer, through their urban and natural visual sceneries, specific visible features that we name themKsourian Landscapes. The present research, accordingly, addresses an investigation; relying on a new methodic perspective, of the chromatic character of theKsourianlandscape of M'zab valley in Algeria which is listed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Using the Natural Color System (NCS), a natural palette (NP) has been conducted; encapsulating 12 representative colors from the natural landscape of the site in congruence with a second palette (human settlements palette), which includes around 16 colors from the urban landscape of the MozabiteKsour. The primary purpose of this research article aims at identifying perceptual similarities between the two palettes after comparison; which relies upon the NCS nominal identities (blackness [s], whiteness [w], chromaticness [c], yellowness [y], and redness [r]); and the NCS relation identities (hue [φ], saturation [m], delta [δ], and beta [β]). Graphical representations of these comparisons are demonstrated in the NCS triangle and the NCS 3D color space. We have demonstrated through our experimental outcomes the strong chromatic integration of the urban settlements in their natural landscape, the original chromatic character as being a constituent of the heritage values of the MozabiteKsourianlandscape, as well as its possible use in the urban restoration processes.