From color to urban image: Contemporary paradigms in the colors of Brazilian cultural heritage

Abstract

The second half of the 20th century was marked by the revision and critique to the modern movement ideology and by new approaches to culture and history, whose reverberations extended to cultural goods. With that, the notion of cultural heritage expands and incorporates
material and immaterial typologies, producing a commodity and an object of consumption. In this context, the colors of architectural surfaces reflect the preservation practices and general
principles guiding the interventions. This article emphasizes the narratives of urban images and identifies the recurrence of certain paradigms – which express the value of novelty within a chromatic trend, such as the use of yellow in historicist architecture and the cultural tourism – on the basis of chromatic interventions conducted in Brazilian historic buildings. The theoretical framework consists of the reflections of Jean Baudrillard, Guy Debord, and Pierre Jeudy; the critical restoration of Cesare Brandi; and the cultural interpretation of Flávio Carsalade. Results indicate that, although the consolidated theory recommends a case-by-case analysis, in practice, design decisions are not supported by current trends in restoration theory, besides revealing that the issue of chromatic interventions in cultural heritage has not been overcome and should be
discussed in its historical, theoretical, and phenomenological complexity.