Blickwinkel

Studies
Professor
Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Herbert Bühler, msa | münster school of architecture
Steffen Riegas M.A.(arch.), 3XN
Type
Bachelor Thesis

My bachelor thesis deals with the topic color and especially with interference pigments. These pigments are able to evoke a multicolor effect on different surfaces.

To get into the topic I concentrated on the sequence of color perception and its several segments at first. From the physical to the physiological to the psychological I evaluated different aspects and also investigated different color theories from Newton and Goethe to Hering.

The key aspects were however the possibilities and differences in color measurements and the analysis of the results.
To integrate the complex effect of interference pigments in the design process I developed a plugin for the 3D software Rhinoceros from McNeel as main part of my thesis. Rhinoceros is a software used by many designers and architects for form finding and realization of complex shapes.
With this plugin it is possible to use measured color data (e.g. from an X-Rite MA98) to simulate a color effect on arbitrary three-dimensional shapes in the viewport of Rhinoceros. Because the effect depends on the position of the sun it is possible to set the location of the shape with longitude, latitude and to define a date and time. Furthermore the point of view is needed. This is taken from the camera viewpoint form the active viewport in Rhinoceros.

Through that it is possible to design with and for these complex colors. For my work I was supported by Merck KGaA, a manufacturer of interference pigments, and Alucobond, a manufacturer of façade systems that are also produced with these pigments.