ABSTRACT
When Gerrit Rietveld designed and built the Schröder House in 1924 using the architectural principles of de Stijl, he invented a new chromatic space for architecture. The raw material for his colour was provided by industrial paints deployed to structure and compose his architectonic space. Later, when Le Corbusier built la Cité Radieuse (1947–52), it was also coloured with the aid of pigments – used to infuse a more intense life into the volumes of his buildings. Le Corbusier declared that ‘architecture is a play of volumes under light’. He added that the presence of colour is the true sign of life and, when it appears, everything is sparkling new.
