Color, light and the perception of a built home environment

Abstract

Chromatic language emerges throughout history and nature, an unquestionable way of communication for individual or collective identification. The color can be a code that illustrates political and social ideologies and realities. Color is influenced by the light and the light is a moment of vivacity or seriousness, emerging and hiding areas, objects, creating real or fantastic environments. The misinterpretation of some professionals towards this reality is surpassed by many studies and experiments, demonstrating the correlation between light, texture and color and the power of each one towards human response and behavior. Several social housing within Lisbon’s periphery is performed with strong chromatic schemes, which achieve the discontinuity of the urban tissue, by the stigmatization of communities, morphologies, typologies and population. Beware!!!