Colour News January - No. 2
Colour related news and events
Welcome to the 2nd January edition of ICA-Belgium Colour News, bringing you colour related news from Belgium and around the world.
Immerse yourself into the colours of Parisian exhibitions, brought to you through the masterful pen of Vinciane Lacroix. Don’t miss our online February Colour Talk with Juan Serra Lluch, the registration is open.
Warm greetings from Belgium,
-your ICA-Belgium team
Sunday Morning Colour Talk with Juan Serra Lluch
Sunday mornings are great for drinking coffee or tea in your pyjamas while listening to ICA-Belgium’s Colour Talks!
On Sunday, 8 February 2026, at 10 AM CET, join us for our next colour talk, this time with Juan Serra Lluch, PhD architect, Full Professor at the School of Architecture (ETSA) of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), and Sub-Dean of Research, who will present his book, Color for Architects.
Colour is essential to architecture yet often misunderstood and overlooked in education; this engaging, richly illustrated volume brings clarity to colour theory by seamlessly blending theory, practice, and real-world examples, offering designers practical tools to confidently use colour in architectural design.
There will be time for Q&A. Jeannette Hanenburg, Inez Michiels and Maja Kaurin invite you to join the conversation.
The event is free but it requires registration, places are limited.
Neil Parkinson – The Colour Librarian
Webinar by Colour Society of Australia
10 February 2026 7:30 PM, AEDT
Colour Society of Australia invites you to join their first free webinar in 2026, by Neil Parkinson, head of special collections at the Royal College of Art, London, and author of The History of Colour: A Universe of Chromatic Phenomena (2023).
Neil Parkinson is perhaps the only known colour librarian in the UK. As head of special collections at the Royal College of Art (RCA), London, his responsibilities include the internationally renowned Colour Reference Library, one of the largest collections of material on colour in the world. The Library embodies seven centuries of colour theory, and includes many rare and beautiful books, alongside colour-related archives and manuscripts. The materials in the Colour Reference Library are as diverse as the subject itself: classic works of theory by Newton, Goethe and Chevreul sit alongside psychological tests, optical illusions and occult texts.
Neil will talk about the challenges of interpreting and organising such a vast and eccentric collection and will discuss some of the different ways its many users, from archaeologists to set designers, approach the subject of colour. He will also outline some of his favourite books on colour, and the many exquisite ways in which the spectrum has been visualised and organised on the printed page.
Save the Date
Workshop: Interaction of Colour in Space
Josef Albers Museum Quadrat in Bottrop, Germany, 27-28 June 2026
In collaboration with Deutsches Farbenzentrum, ICA-Belgium invites architects, designers, artists and all colour lovers to an exceptional two-day workshop at the renowned Josef Albers Museum Quadrat Bottrop - a unique setting to explore colour where art, theory, and architecture meet.
Led by two internationally acclaimed experts, the workshop brings together outstanding voices in architectural colour research and practice: Maria Zurbuchen-Henz, architect based in Lausanne and Professor at Haus der Farbe – Fachschule für Gestaltung in Handwerk und Architektur in Zurich, and Juan Serra Lluch, PhD architect, Full Professor at the School of Architecture (ETSA) of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) and Sub-Dean of Research at ETSA.
Rooted in Josef Albers’s groundbreaking theory of colour interaction, the workshop goes beyond academic discourse to focus on practical, architectural applications. Through hands-on exercises, critical discussion, and applied research, both lecturers offer their distinct interpretations—translating colour theory into spatial experience, material expression, and design strategy.
This is a rare opportunity to engage deeply with colour as an architectural tool, exchange ideas with leading experts, and gain new perspectives that can directly inform design practice.
Find more information about the workshop here.
Places are limited to 25. Register for the waiting list to be among the first to be notified when registration opens.
Call for volunteers
We are always looking for volunteers to help with many parts of running ICA-Belgium: organising events, workshops, developing articles and publications, communication, social media, marketing, sponsorships and funding, photography and video recording...
If you would like to volunteer for ICA-Belgium, please get in touch with us and let us know more about you and how you think you could contribute to ICA-Belgium. As you know, we are a nonprofit organisation, run entirely by volunteers, always looking for ways to grow, develop and connect.
As a nonprofit organisation, run entirely by volunteers and on a very limited budget, we are counting on you to help us continue offering free online Colour Talks, colour related information and accessible colour related events and education. Consider to either become an ICA-Belgium member, or a paid newsletter subscriber. You can also buy ICA a coffee.
