ABSTRACT
Connecting solidity in architecture to virtual colors, like the purple shadows of a Neo-Impressionist painting, situates Amedee Ozenfant's proposal at the end of the century-long encounter of artists with color theory, in which the explanations about color were increasingly located in the subjectivity of the eye-mind-body. Ozenfant's much later proposal for 'colour solidity' cleverly answered that criticism, enhancing the careful respect for each 'wall, its form, volume, and purpose' with the vitality of virtual colors induced by mutual contrast. Ozenfant offered 'colour solidity' not as a general theory of color, but as a very precise tactic for disciplining its use in architecture. The final and most muted version of the 'solidity' experiments was reported in the caption of the 'Colour Solidity' article itself, which explained the painting of the entire apartment in greater detail through a series of developed plans showing the surfaces and colors of every room.
