NEW YORK: A building does not always need a dramatic shape to make people stop and look. Sometimes, all it takes is color.
From towering temple gateways painted in vivid shades to a library wrapped in soft pastel ceramics, architects around the world have used color to turn buildings into experiences that people remember long after they leave.
For centuries, color has helped buildings tell stories, express identity and create emotion. Ancient civilizations covered temples and monuments with pigments, while medieval churches used stained glass to fill interiors with shifting light.
Renaissance artists transformed walls and ceilings with elaborate frescoes, and modern architects have continued that tradition with bold tiles, painted surfaces and unexpected combinations.
The idea goes back even further. Early humans and Neanderthals used natural pigments to decorate cave walls, showing that the desire to surround ourselves with color is far older than formal architecture itself.
Today, architects are pushing that tradition in new directions. Color can make a building feel welcoming, energetic, spiritual, playful or even rebellious. In some cases, it can completely change how people understand a structure.
Designer Adam Nathaniel Furman and author Kate Mazade explore that idea in their book, Chromatic Architecture The Craft of Colour in Design, which highlights buildings where color is central to the architectural experience.
Here are eight striking examples from around the world.
1. Guardian Building — Detroit, Michigan
Detroit’s Guardian Building proves that even a financial institution can have a strong sense of drama.
Completed in 1929 and designed by Wirt C. Rowland, the Art Deco skyscraper is often called the “Cathedral of Finance.”
Its exterior is covered with nearly 2 million orange-toned bricks and terracotta tiles. Inside, a three-story vaulted lobby is decorated with a striking arrangement of brightly colored tiles.
The bold design reflected Detroit’s economic confidence during the city’s industrial boom while celebrating the craftsmanship of the Great Lakes region.
2. Palau de la Música Catalana — Barcelona, Spain
Step inside Barcelona’s Palau de la Música Catalana and it can feel less like a concert hall and more like a colorful dream.
Completed in 1908, the building was designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner and combines Art Nouveau with Romanesque, Gothic Revival, Moorish and Valencian influences.
Nearly every detail contributes to its visual richness. Colorful mosaics, stained glass, decorative columns, sculptures and intricate architectural elements work together to create an interior filled with movement and symbolism.
The building shows how color can turn a functional space into an emotional experience.
3. Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple — Tamil Nadu, India
Few places demonstrate the power of color as dramatically as the Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple in Tamil Nadu.
Construction of the sprawling religious complex began in the first century and continued under successive dynasties for centuries. The result is one of the world’s largest temple complexes, covering more than 150 acres.
Its 21 towering gopurams, or gateways, are covered with brightly colored sculptures and intricate three-dimensional details. The layers of color, figures and decoration create an almost overwhelming visual experience, drawing visitors into an environment designed for worship, reflection and wonder.
Here, color is not simply decoration. It is part of the temple’s spiritual identity.
4. De Bijenkorf Department Store — Eindhoven, Netherlands
Gio Ponti turned a potentially dull department store into one of Eindhoven’s most distinctive landmarks.
Completed in 1969, the building’s large, windowless exterior is covered in a colorful grid of tiles. Ponti reportedly drew inspiration from the patchwork appearance of Dutch farmland viewed from an airplane.
Instead of allowing a massive concrete wall to dominate the cityscape, he used color and pattern to give the building a sense of movement and character.
The result is a structure that feels closer to a giant piece of modern art than an ordinary department store.
5. Reversible Destiny Lofts — Tokyo, Japan
Some architects use color to make a building beautiful. The designers of Tokyo’s Reversible Destiny Lofts used it to make people think differently about how they live.
Completed in 2005, the nine-unit residential complex was designed by Shusaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins in memory of disability advocate and writer Helen Keller.
The apartments combine brightly colored spheres, cylinders and cuboids with uneven floors and unusual room shapes.
The unconventional design was intentional. The architects believed that environments should challenge people rather than allow them to become completely comfortable and inactive.
The result is a sensory experience in which color, shape and movement are impossible to ignore.
6. Croydon Colonnade — London, England
In East Croydon, color has transformed an otherwise ordinary pedestrian route into a vivid public space.
Designed by Adam Nathaniel Furman in 2003, the 50-meter colonnade features 16 large columns and two walls covered with thousands of handmade porcelain tiles.
The tiles shift from deep blue at the bottom to creamy white at the top, with rich translucent glazes creating depth and movement.
The design draws on centuries of colorful architectural ceramics from places including Egypt, Portugal, Turkey, Iran and ancient Babylon.
7. Maishima Waste Incinerator Plant — Osaka, Japan
A waste treatment facility might not sound like a place worth visiting for its architecture, but Osaka’s Maishima plant is anything but ordinary.
Designed by Austrian artist and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser, the facility resembles a brightly colored fantasy castle.
Yellow stripes appear to flow across its walls, while red details, rounded structures and an aqua-colored chimney give the industrial complex a playful appearance.
Hundertwasser rejected the rigid lines and uniformity associated with conventional modern architecture. At Maishima, he treated an industrial facility as an opportunity to experiment with color, nature and imagination.
8. Leganés Central Library — Leganés, Spain
A library does not have to look quiet or conventional.
Completed in 2019 by BN Asociados Arquitectos, the Leganés Central Library and municipal archive uses a rounded façade covered with large pastel ceramic panels.
The soft colors give the building a distinctive identity in a neighborhood that needed a strong cultural landmark.
As sunlight moves across the curved ceramics, the colors and textures change, creating an effect that resembles sheets of paper an especially fitting visual reference for a library.
These buildings may be separated by thousands of miles and centuries of history, but they share a simple idea: color can change the way people experience a place.
It can give a temple a sense of spiritual energy, turn a concert hall into a visual spectacle, make a financial building feel monumental or transform a waste facility into an unexpected attraction.
From the first pigments used on cave walls to the colorful façades of today’s cities, humans have continued to use color to make their surroundings more expressive.
And perhaps that is why the most memorable buildings are not always the biggest or most expensive ones. Sometimes, they are simply the ones brave enough to stand out.
