The conference looked beyond functionality and program towards color and its power to produce moods and atmospheres. Think of architecture as a stage set or soundtrack that colors your experience of life the way it does a theater performance. The location was in Mexico, because the country is well-renown for its use of color in architecture, and was home to Luis Barragán - a surrealist architect who created dreamlike spaces using color, light and geometry. It is important to redefine the new aesthetic directions that living atmospheres could take once technology is completely absorbed within a living atmosphere. The most exciting new possibilities lie in the research of a younger, digital, generation, who is looking into the use of color as an integral ingredient of a topological surface, not an application or special effect. Greg Lynn was the first one to demonstrate the possibilities of coordinating the effects of color and pattern with those of form in his exhibition at the MAK 2003. The next generation of avant-garde embraced Lynn’s vision quickly. Hernan Diaz Alonso designed a shiny red and white installation of monstrous beauty for SF Moma, Kivi Sotamaa with Gabe Esquivel designed an apartment complex that uses flowing curving surfaces covered in a color patterns that reinforce the sensation of movement. Francois Roche designed a building that would be covered in dust from Bangkok air, Dave Erdman and his group Servo, Mark Gage, designed the gold atmosphere installation for PS1 and Ali Rahim, his incredible vision that incorporates a new sensibility into geometry.They all are interested in the affective powers of surfaces that deploy not only the powers of geometry, but also color. The conference was a meeting between the young international avant-garde and Mexican Architectural community. The intention is both to introduce the research and discourse to Mexico, and to learn and find inspiration from Mexico.
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