Grayness: A Chromatology Study in Urban Perception

This study explores the concept of grayness within chromatology, drawing inspiration from Peter Sloterdijk’s idea of compromise, where light and darkness intermingle. It represents a shift away from earlier work focused on bright colors and vivid urban landscapes, moving instead toward a quieter and more contemplative approach to color. Rather than simply indicating a lack of vibrancy, grayness reveals a layered complexity that subtly shapes perception, atmosphere and emotional engagement with the city.

The city is understood not only as a physical environment but also as a sensory and perceptual experience. Similar to the notion of the sensitive city, which investigates how the senses influence urban living, this study examines how grayness mediates between visibility and obscurity, presence and absence. It is a chromatic condition that allows urban space to be interpreted in subtle and alternative ways, neither fixed nor absolute, but fluid, ambiguous and receptive to multiple readings. Grayness expresses states of transition and interplay, inviting deeper reflection on how urban environments are felt, navigated and understood.

Moving beyond conventional rational approaches to urban design, this research adopts the role of a soft designer, engaging the city through irony and playful distortion. Inspired by the spirit of scherzo, which carries an undertone of lightness, humor and controlled absurdity, it reframes serious urban concerns such as mobility and economy through visual provocations and reinterpretations. By bending perspectives and disrupting expectations, the study encourages a more poetic, sensorial and imaginative engagement with urban transformation.

Ultimately, grayness is not a constraint but a space of potential. It is where perception, materiality and imagination intersect. It invites an urban sensibility that values subtlety, fluidity and reinterpretation, offering new ways to understand and interact with the places we inhabit.