"Polychromy": A study on Goethe's Theory of Colours and computational design pedagogy

This paper will present the main principles of Goethe's Theory of Colours and formulate a theoretical approach for the study of polychromy in digital design pedagogy. In the first part of the paper a survey on colour theory will be presented comparing Goethe and Newton's works on colour. The concepts of polarity [Polarität] and intensification [Steigerung] will be introduced as the two main principles of Goethe's dynamic notion of colour. These terms will be used to explain how Goethe considered colours to induce sensual effects on the onlooker. In the second part a digital design studio that focuses on colour will be presented. The pedagogy will show how a dynamic notion of colour could be studied using digital tools. Some of the student works will be presented while addressing how a Goethean notion of sensual colours could be studied as spatial parameters. The goal of the paper is to distill a theoretical approach towards the study of colour in architecture and contemplate on how it could be applied within the digital design curriculum. © 2014, The Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA), Hong Kong.