Chromatic transformations in the architecture and in the landscape

This study aims to highlight the importance of color in the relationship between architecture and landscape. The change of the vegetation’s colors in the different seasons generates continuously different landscapes. An architecture inserted in a natural landscape is always perceived differently. The Fallingwater looks different in autumn, winter, spring and summer. Some architects conceived their design in a landscape that changes with the passing of the seasons: the Therme Vals are a building in the landscape, but at the same time the landscape penetrates the building, modifying it in different periods, from the extreme of the snow to that of the explosion of late spring blooms. Vegetal elements inserted in an architecture make it always different: each tower of the Bosco Verticale has 4 prospects differentiated by the plant species, which change seasonally. In the reflecting buildings the change of seasons generates a real renovation of the front, especially in those totally immersed in the landscape. On the other hand, the color’s change of architectural elements in a context with natural elements can generate unexpected transfomations. An example is the Villa Garzoni in Collodi and its winter park, characterized by predominantly evergreen vegetation, where the terracotta balustrades of the terraces were once red, are now white. The intention is to demonstrate how the chromatic variations are ‘‘a sort of fourth dimension’’ in architecture, in the landscape and in their interaction through a visual-perceptive analysis of some case studies and a survey on the role of color in architecture and landscape