MAY 2006 »  book review

A Fresh Look at Color

Doors of the World

Windows of the World
by Jean-Philippe and Dominique Lenclos
W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., New York, NY; 2005
184 pp. each; softcover; 230 color photos each; $25 each
ISBN 0-393-73187-1 (Doors); 0-393-73188-X (Windows)

Reviewed by Martha McDonald

Designer and colorist Jean-Philippe Lenclos and his wife, Dominique, a Classics professor, have collaborated previously on other books about color, including Colors of the World, Couleurs de la France and Couleurs de l’Europe. Now, Doors of the World and its companion book, Windows of the World, both originally published in French in 2001, are available in English. Having traveled extensively and catalogued colors and pigments from many countries for many years, the authors have become experts on color and how it is used in architecture around the world. Jean-Philippe Lenclos is also the founder of Atelier 3D Couleur, a research firm specializing in the creation and application of color for the environment, architecture and industrial products, and teaches color theory at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs.

Focusing on particular architectural elements, the two new books reinforce and illustrate the concepts of color and geography set forth in the more comprehensive 288-page book, Colors of the World. Doors of the World and Windows of the World are both chock full of colorful images, with very little white space and very little text, leaving the photographs to tell the story. There is some duplication between Colors and the two new books, with photographs similar to those found in Colors also appearing in Doors and Windows. Each of the new books offers a brief introduction that discusses the importance of color, how the authors collected their photographs and an equally brief explanation of the importance of windows and of doors. The introductions incorporate color charts illustrating color palettes that the authors found in their travels.

If you are looking for a history of windows or doors or an explanation of the different types, you will have to look elsewhere. These two books are primarily a celebration of color and how it has been used on windows and doors in homes around the world.

A foreword by Tom Porter appears in both books. In Doors, for example, he explains the process: "The Lenclos’s study results from a research program that is both simple and logical. First, selecting sites typical of a region and armed with the knowledge that traditional settlements are built from the substrate upon which they stand, they take color samples of locally applied pigment from each architectural component of a habitat, in addition to its building materials and the structure’s indigenous flora and local geography. Later, back in their studio, the samples are meticulously color matched in gouache and assembled into color palettes..."

A short preface and an equally short chapter entitled simply "Doors" follows. It covers the basic structure and function of a door: "A passage from exterior to interior, or from interior to exterior, a passage over which the god Janus presides, separating the good and the bad spirits; an entryway, the ‘mouth of the home,’ is more or less welcoming, depending on its occupants and local customs." The bulk of the book is organized into three groupings, "France," "Europe" and "Around the World."

The structure of the book on windows is similar, starting with the preface, a short chapter on windows, color palettes and then the bulk of the book – three sections of photographs from France, Europe and around the world.

The charm and beauty of these books lies in the colorful, exuberant photographs. Flipping through the book takes you on a journey of architectural color around the world, through photographs seemingly arranged by color palettes within geographic areas. Doors, for example, goes from a sandstone portal in Morocco to a double-paneled entry with sculpted lintel on the Ile-de-France in Paris to a bamboo-lined aperture in China. In Windows, the reader will see bay, rose, lancet and half-fan windows, as well as oculi, shutters and blinds. Each photograph is identified by a single line of small type giving only the city and the country, leaving the reader hungry for more information.

Hungry for more, in fact, is how the reader (viewer, in this case) is left. While enjoyable and beautiful, the books could provide more information on the content of the individual photographs, more on the history of doors and windows and perhaps more on color itself, although this is found in the earlier book, Colors of the World. An index and a table of contents would also have been helpful.

That said, these two books provide valuable additions to the knowledge and use of color in architecture and add to a beautiful family of books. The culmination of more than three decades of work, the Lenclos’ books, according to Porter, reaffirm "that the vocabulary of color is alive and well in the traditional built environment, its incidence revealed by the basic urge to decorate, to signify pride of place, ownership, and individuality, and to reflect the hues and local belief systems that are natural to a region."  

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