Building Investment (Sep - Oct 2015)

WAF Special
Jeremy Rowe.
colours on exteriors and on wood although they are mainly for
interiors.
We have been doing ColourFutures for 13 years now and have
seen trends change from light to dark, to slightly darker and now
back to lighter colours. The theme for our ColourFutures 2016,
which is ‘looking both ways’, coincidentally, is same as that for
the World Architecture Festival 2015 which is centred on balance,
between past and future, light and dark, words and pictures, good
and bad and so on, that our research showed. Generally when you
see lighter colours coming up, especially yellows, it tends to signal
optimism, and warmth as well - 2015 has been an unpredictable year
and we hope 2016 will be better.
B&I: What about Colours of the World, i.e., more colours and
countries to be added on?
JR: We will certainly look at it, Colours of the World is an idea which
has grown – the different degrees of colour seem to help people with
different needs to think in terms of colour families, e.g., green is
healthy, refreshing and revitalising, so we give them what is called
the tonal palette for green, i.e., different hues of greens, some deep
and some light. We started out with seven colours and we are already
seeing people engaging with that quite nicely; it ties in with countries
and triggers some nice memory and association, of where they have
been to or where they are most likely to go.
B&I: As headline sponsor of the World Architecture Festival
(WAF), scheduled for November, Singapore, what will be the scope
of AkzoNobel’s participation in this international event?
JR: It is a nice festival for us to be able to sponsor - it goes well with
what we are as a business. Essentially WAF is a gathering of architects
and interior designers who come to event, principally, to celebrate
the work of fellow architects and interior designers from around the
world. Our paints, coatings and chemicals are an important part of
any building, more than 40% of what we do goes into a building so,
as headline sponsor, we are looking to connect with this important
group who represent one of our core audiences.
As it was last year, AkzoNobel will have a nice stand and, as a
sponsor, will also be there helping to judge and award prizes for 20-30
categories of competition, one of which is the Colour Exterior Award
for best use of colour, not necessarily paint. Apart from speeches,
we will be there to give a couple of live demonstrations and a few
other things as well, for example, something new this year will be
architectural sketching of painting. The backdrop will be Singapore’s
50th anniversary (SG50) with a theme ‘looking backwards and
forwards’, a nice element of being retrospective and being future
looking.
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