Sustainable colour design in technologies and products

When should we consider the colour of a building as a sustainable feature? In contemporary architecture, old and new materials, technologies and products are complying with the new rules of sustainability by providing the architectural project the means to adapt to the new challenges of contemporary innovation. Of course, colour seems to play a strategic role in this scenario, adapting to the choices of the different points of view – sometimes ideological – of contemporary architecture. The paper describes the results of a recent research conducted in the “Eterotopie” Research Centre by the authors, with the valuable contributions of V. Brustolon, A. Dehò, C. Gregoris, A. Martini, and P. Zennaro [1]. The researchers, dealing with various specialisms, studied chromatic use in the architectural design of 12 families of materials, technologies and products with the aim of assessing their real impact on the environment and possible solutions based on a scientific and rational approach.