Colour in the city: a chromatic typology for the quantitative analysis of spatial coherence

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the implementation of a tool that can be used to characterise chromatic attributes of an urban area. The challenge is to provide statistical and quantitative answers to these questions: how is colour organised, how does it develop its own structure in the city? How can colour appear as an indicator of homogeneity and spatial coherence? We use a K-means statistical clustering technique to produce chromatic types of building façades. Once the chromatic categories are defined, the question of spatial coherence is investigated using the Shannon entropy value as an indicator. Our method was tested through an application to 18 urban fragments of the city of Liège (Belgium). The research highlights the differences between compact urban areas (historic centre, nineteenth century developments) and new urban configurations (city entrances, commercial and peri-urban zones).

KEYWORDS:

• Chromatic characterisation
• typology
• K-means
• Shannon entropy
• spatial coherence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.