The layout of the piece of art for the Rems-Murr hospital complex, Winnenden/Germany has been thoroughly revised and adapted to the infrastructural conditions. So the final design is at hand in January 2013. The concept consists of the following idea: The Colour Wall is the continuation of architecture – using the means of painting. The architectural design of the Rems-Murr-Klinikum in Winnenden foresees a main axis in order to connect the different parts of the building. This is its practical function. Beyond that the main axis has a communicative meaning. It represents the motif of a path and translates this into architectural terms. What is objectively no more than a distance is subjectively perceived as progressing, as a change, as a process. In relation to the body this means: a process of healing, of recovery. In relation to the mind, this means: a process of awareness. The theme of the main axis is therefore development. Everybody who moves about in the Klinikum is concerned with this theme: the patients, the visitors and the staff. The artistic design of the North Wall of the main axis – the Colour Wall – aims to enhance the effect of the architecture so that people in the hospital experience the motif of a path and the theme of development even more intensely.
external appearance
of the building
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external appearance
of the building
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external appearance
of the building
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colour scheme
of the interior design,
basic colour yellow
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colour scheme
of the interior design,
basic colour green
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colour scheme
of the interior design,
basic colour orange
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“orchestrates”
the basic colour
yellow
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“orchestrates”
the basic colour
green
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“orchestrates”
the basic colour
orange
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of an interlinking
sequence of colours:
yellow
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of an interlinking
sequence of colours:
green
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of an interlinking
sequence of colours:
orange
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Architecture and painting speak with one voice – by means of a unifying colour scheme. The three colours yellow, green and orange lend a face to the hospital. They do more than decorate it. They interpret it. In the spirit of a house of health. The ideas that the colours convey are: fresh, lively, positive.
The external effect of the three basic colours is to open up a dialogue to nature and the landscape. Inside the building they serve as orientation. The colours are a message. This message has a core, a soul, where the complex of buildings has its backbone: in the main axis. In this way the Colour Wall lends a voice to architecture and painting: in a mutual dialogue and in a joint dialogue with people. The Colour Wall tells a progressive story through changes of colour, relationships between colours and colour connections – legible for all those who walk along the Colour Wall or whose sweeps along it. The intention of the Colour Wall is thus to give positive impulses. To the patients with their suffering, the visitors with their worries, the staff in their challenging profession – to revive and breathe life into them all. To put them on their feet. And to give them some space.
of colour create
an antithesis to
the long horizontal
of the main axis
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to the verticals
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of the vertical
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Father-and-child
level
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Raised-foot level
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Lying level
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Eye level
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The colours unfold by means of linked surfaces. Vertical fields of colour create an antithesis to the long horizontal of the main axis. The size of the fields is related to the step of a passer-by. They do not create a uniform beat, but – sometimes narrower, sometimes wider – a living rhythm, comparable to syncopation in music.
This micro-structure is complemented by a macro-structure. Because people do not merely take single steps, but cover a distance. The Colour Wall is therefore divided into 30 distinct sections. Each point on this long course is made into a place that is experienced personally, that people can identify with. They are not lost along an anonymous distance, but always perceive an individual environment.
The vertical colour boundaries are upright or at a moderate diagonal. The continuous change of these two directions generates a gentle movement – as if the wind were moving through tall grass, reeds, a field of grain, or as if a curtain were in motion. This allows the Colour Wall to breathe. It opens up to an imaginary space, like looking into a forest.
Essay “The Colour Wall”
On this project also see Report 10/2012 and 12/2012.