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Black White | Resort & Spa

application

Black White is commonly used in urban resorts and spas, as a way of refining and making more sophisticated large-scale interiors that may accommodate thousands of people in a short time period.

research

The pairing of black and white pigments in art and architecture is a timeless representation of duality; male and female, day and night, and the Chinese philosophy of yin and yang. Chiaroscuro (Italian for light-dark) has been a conceptual approach and technique since the Renaissance period, and artists and designers have used it over the centuries to add dimension and drama to a composition, and in interior design particularly, “high-contrast juxtapositions reinforce the function of the space.”1

Contemporary Black White interiors may be credited to Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th century. Mackintosh’s training in art, architecture, and design is evident in his use of the dual colors to define space and furnishings.2 As preface to an exploration of color, Gerhard Mack asserts that the black white duality “… was at one and the same time a means of cleansing oneself of the all-pervasive yet watered-down baroque of Danubian Vienna, and a way of emphasizing clarity of form.”3

Subsequently, the Bauhaus design movement of the 1920s eschewed the aesthetic of the Arts and Crafts and Art Deco movements, omitting pastels and bright colors of the previous decades in favor of neutral colors, such as black, white, grey, and minimal application of primary colors. Discrete accents or red and yellow are utilized in contemporary Black White interiors, in a manner similar to that of the Bauhaus era, such as Gerrit Rietveld’s Schröder House (1925). Minimalist and dichromatic Bauhaus architecture and furnishings, such as Le Corbusier’s chaise lounge (1928), are often present in contemporary hospitality interiors. Designers of the industrial aesthetic appreciated that such colors were easy to mass produce and restrained applications sufficed in making forms “stand out, space, turn, twist, lighten or darken.”4

The defined simplicity of Black White has pervaded hospitality design through much of the 20th century, particularly in modern, post-modern, and contemporary establishments. In describing and interpreting Black White resort and spa interiors, the underlying motives, along with aesthetics, are usually discussed, such as for a hotel in Reykjavik, Iceland, as “the unadorned, masculine space in polished black…finds its feminine counterpart in the stark white dimpled mural that runs alongside the glass roof of the restaurant.”5 Black White is commonly used in urban resorts and spas, as a way of refining and making more sophisticated large-scale interiors that may accommodate thousands of people in a short time period. THEhotel (2004) in the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas uses Black White in the lobby space, via furnishings and dynamic architectural details. First-hand experience at THEhotel has illustrated that this effect, along with the lighting, scale, and alignment of the space, inspires a cadence and solemnity among those who pass through.6

Black White remains a vigorous practice in resort and spa.7

end notes

  1. 1) Robert F. Ladau, Brent K. Smith, and Jennifer Place, Color in Interior Design and Architecture (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1989), 2.
  2. 3) Gerhard Mack, Foreword, Colors (Blaricum, The Netherlands: V+K Publishing, 2001), 7.
  3. 4) Ladau, Smith and Place, Color in Interior Design and Architecture, 68; Corbusier Chaise Lounge, Guestroom, Cameros Inn [2003] Shopworks and William Rawn Associates; Napa Valley, Calif. in "Homegrown," Interior Design 76, no. 2 (Feb. 2005): 200; Spa Lounge, Estrella, Viceroy [2003] KWID; Palm Springs, Calif. in Grey Crawford, "Made in the Shade," Interior Design 74, no. 3 (March 2003): 216.
  4. 5) Kimberly Bradley, ed., Design Hotels Yearbook 08 (Berlin: Design Hotels AG, 2008), 255.
  5. 6) Lobby, THEhotel [2004] Dougall Design Associates; Las Vegas in Dennis Anderson, "Work of Art," Hospitality Design Magazine 26, no. 8 (Nov. 2004): 85.
  6. 7) Evidence for the archetypical use and the chronological sequence of Black White in resort and spa was developed from the following sources: 1990 Dining Room, The Hempel [1996] Anouska Hempel; London, UK in Paco Asensio, ed. Ultimate Hotel Design (Barcelona: LOFT Publications, 2004): 519; PhotoCrd: Gunnar Knechtel / 2000 Lounge, St. Paul Hotel [2001] Carlos Aparicio and Ana Borallo; Montreal, CA in Asenslo, Ultimate Hotel Design, 46; PhotoCrd: Jean Blais; Lounge, Estrella at the Viceroy [2003] KWID; Palm Springs, CA in "Made in the Shade," Interior Design 74, no. 3 (Mar. 2003): 216-19; PhotoCrd: Grey Crawford; Great Room, Carneros Inn [2003] Shopworks and William Rawn Associates; Napa Valley, CA in "Homegrown," Interior Design 76, no. 2 (Feb. 2005): 200, 202; PhotoCrd: Art Gray; Lobby, THEhotel [2004] Terry Dougall, Dougall Design Associates, Interior Design; Las Vegas, NV in Tara Mastrelli, "Work of Art: A Vegas Hotel Redefines the Thematic Strip," Hospitality Design Magazine 26, no. 8 (Nov. 2004): 85; PhotoCrd: Dennis Anderson; Spa Treatment Room, Spa at Red Rock [2006] Architropolis Corporation; Las Vegas, NV in photo by Rachel Goldfarb on location [2008]; Guest Room, Mondrian [2007] Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz; Scottsdale, AZ in C.C. Sullivan, C.C. Sullivan, "In the Beginning . . . ," Interior Design 78, no. 8 (June 2007): 212; PhotoCrd: Ken Hayden.

bibliographic citations

1) The Interior Archetypes Research and Teaching Project, Cornell University, www.intypes.cornell.edu (accessed month & date, year).

2) Goldfarb, Rachel. “Theory Studies: Archetypical Practices of Contemporary Resort and Spa Design.” M.A. thesis, Cornell University, 2008, 45-51.