Theoretical Review on Color in Interior Space: An Experimental Assessment of Iranian Houses

ABSTRACT: People are surrounded by color in the daily life, which can define a style, culture and design all around. Color externalizes human-being’s tastes and styles; its use in the choice of clothes and/or living environments is a proof. This master thesis study attempts to contribute to the general understanding of the nature of color by addressing the relevant theoretical information, and extracts perspectives about color in terms of interior architecture. Therefore the main objective is to add to the importance of understanding color within interior space in regards to the quality of the space, and provide positive knowledge and awareness to both users and designers. Through a careful attention paid to how and where the color is used in the built environment is crucial in terms of successful interior design. Color is inseparable, yet difficult to define issue of interior architecture. The effect of color, regarding human attitude, in the interior context differing in functional cases, is very important aspect of psychological setting of an interior. Color used to define the elements such as walls, ceilings, floors and all the other relevant elements of space in general, and living environments in particular, are within the main concern of this study. In doing so, the principles of color for living rooms are tried to be analyzed by an analytic observation method, applied to examples chosen from the Capital city of Iran, Tehran. Tehran is a huge city, having different regions and economical, social, and cultural varieties of people living in. Therefore, because the subject of house is the basic spatial requirement for human-being, who spend most of the time in, the subject of color has a crucial effect on the mood manifested out of the design of the living environments. An experimental study on color regarding the living environments by selecting varying examples from Tehran’s different regions and types of houses through random sampling will be done based on knowledge gathered. Within the vast field of color, this is thought to be very important in terms of both physical and psychological aspects that may be varying according to the life style, character and emotional needs of the users. Keywords: Theory of color, color perception, meaning of color, house, living environments, color in interior space. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………