On The Cosmic Latte Manifesto

"After the modernist paradigm of white architecture, the built environment today is characterised by the 'off-white' of beige architecture. Beige is not radical and purist like white, it is moderating and popular. Beige assists formal nuances, games with materials, responses to the rural and urban context, and adaptations to the past.

But while beige acts as an emblem of harmony and deconflictualisation in architecture, it is omnipresent in the media as the colour of violence in images of war-torn desert regions and of the destruction of monuments from the dawn of Western civilisation. While the colour of war was the grey of the trenches in World War I, the red of burning cities in World War II, the green of the jungle in the Vietnam War, since the 1980s it has been the colour of sand, or beige, from the Gulf War to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria." -excerpt from Cosmic Latte: Architecture Beige Manifesto, Jürgen Mayer H. and Philip Ursprung 2017, on display at the Chicago Cultural Center for the Chicago Architecture Biennial

When contemplating the color palette of my urban environment (especially in these winter Chicago months), a general grayscale scheme comes to mind. I've also found that different cities and neighborhoods have different colors that I associate with them- northwest DC was shockingly green when I first moved there, Santiago was a hazy orange, (with its infamous air pollution and gorgeous sunsets), and Medellín, a dusty terra cotta hue. Intentional or not, it would stand to reason that these urban color palettes influence us deeply.

Personally however, the color beige conjures up the sights, smells, and sounds of two specific environments- the first being the hallways and rooms of Chicago public schools. For 13 years, seven hours a day, I was immersed within a world of beige. Hallways, floor tiles, lockers, window shades, and desks were all varying shades of beige and off-white. In this setting, I felt that beige was a flattening color purposely chosen for its banality in order foster the most efficient, least distracting environment for students. It signaled authority and, to some degree, oppressiveness.

Beige is also reminiscent of underground train stations of the CTA and DC Metro, where I have also spent countless hours of my life. The brutalist architecture of the DC Metro in particular is defended as an iconic characteristic that actually conveys more personality than it would if it weren't a dusty beige-gray. Recent attempts to paint over the metro have even resulted in a certain measure of public outcry, demonstrating the somewhat mysterious power of urban beige.

With these experiences in public infrastructure, beige represents not a "color of violence," nor "moderating and popular," but rather an odd choice of default, the psychological consequences of which would be infinitely fascinating to study.

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