in memoriam

Michel Cler (1938–2017)

Michel Cler on a visit to the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, March 14, 2017. Photo: Verena M. Schindler

Couleurs-matières-ambiance (vimeo)

With deep grief and profound sadness, I announce the passing of Michel Cler with whom I have collaborated for so many years, sharing colour in all its multiple facets ranging from the utmost ethereal philosophical issues to ultimately concrete practical matters. Verena M. Schindler

Michel Cler, architect, colour consultant

Architect and colour consultant, MICHEL CLER (1938–2017) received his diploma from the École Spéciale d’Architecture (DESA), Paris, France. He was founder and Director of Atelier Cler in Paris, France. Since 1970, it has been known as the Atelier France and Michel Cler. Conceiving and creating chromatic ambiences for urban spaces, the Atelier’s work includes designing and realizing colour projects in Hong Kong, Vietnam, the French West Indies, and especially in France. Essential aspects of his chromatic studies include the analysis of spatial and site-specific features; evaluation of mineral and vegetal elements as well as determining different qualities of light; and, understanding the effects and relevance of colour for local culture.

The chromatic studies for the New Towns surrounding Paris, Lille, and in the south of France were the starting point of further research and projects at different scales. Studying the interrelationship of “light-colour-texture” was fundamental to his approach.

In terms of landscape chromatic design, colour design for the Industrial Park of the French Ain Area (Parc Industriel de la Plaine de l’Ain) near Lyon was a long-term project, which began in 1976 and continued with regular operational follow-ups until early 2011. The aim was to introduce environmental qualities to the industrial area in terms of materials and colours to make it attractive and harmonious. Other goals included enhancing the distinctive identity of the industrial park and providing a sense of comfort and wellbeing for the people working there.

In working with small communities, Michel Cler’s main intention became to draw attention to a distinct way of looking: le regard, as he used to say, meaning to open the eyes and pay attention to the mood of a site through the interrelationship of lumières, matières, couleurs. Tending to the interaction of these three features, the purpose thereby was to enhance and make space visible. His approach was always based on the visual experience of colour, the way colours are subtly perceived in everyday surroundings. This led him to underscore the importance of colour as the framework—and also means of revitalizing—of chromatic ambiences within the specific contexts of built and natural environments of towns and villages.

Besides chromatic studies for transportation structures, cultural centres, and public spaces, the Hong Kong Housing Authority also entrusted the Atelier with preliminary chromatic studies for a large number of residential developments with high-rise towers located on various sites with different geographical characters. Some were situated within an urban context, while others were in valleys, on hills, or at the seaside. The results of the chromatic analysis and synthesis were published in 1993 in a brochure entitled Harmony Chromatic Chart that has been widely distributed to local architects. Two important concerns in his methodology of colour studies in different locations included the cultural aspect and memory of a site.

As well, a series of colour collections or nuanciers de couleurs, as they are called in French, have been conceived by the Atelier for different building material producers, including Zolpan (2003, exterior/interior paint), Saint Gobain Weber (2002, thick coating), IPA-Weber&Broutin (2001, thick coating), Haironville Metal Profil Belgium (2000, aluminium cladding), Ferrari Manufacturer of Membranes and Composite Textiles (1998, fabric), Peintures Gauthier (1988, exterior/interior paint), Griesser (1983, fabric), and Buchtal (1980, ceramic). Michel Cler claimed that a colour collection was far more than just a simple commercial tool. Rather it acted as a wide-sweeping colour vocabulary and colour trend intended for particular use. Thereby colour collections also imbue with concrete meanings, associations, and evocations, having become major determinants in the representation of contemporary colour culture.

Michel Cler was co-founder and President of ad-chroma, Paris, France, and member of the International Colour Association (AIC). He was also member of the AIC Study Group on Environmental Colour Design (SG ECD). His AIC papers published in the conference proceedings very concisely sum up some of his professional concerns. He shared his knowledge and experience with us at the many AIC Congresses he attended: AIC 1991 Sydney, AIC 1993 Budapest, AIC 1997 Kyoto, AIC 2000 Seoul, AIC 2001 Rochester NY, AIC 2008 Stockholm, and AIC 2011 Zurich. He has published widely and given many invited talks.

Michel Cler was an internationally renowned colour expert. His capacity to analyse, evaluate, and synthesise current colour aspects and architectural trends in the process of passionately addressing theoretical and practical colour issues was accentuated by his innovative sensibility, natural sense of observation and creativity and his excellent talent for communication. He was a pivotal figure of the emerging profession of colour consulting in France. Works of Atelier France and Michel Cler are included in the Centre Pompidou’s collection and have been exhibited in Paris (2011–2013) and Roubaix (2017).

Verena M. Schindler

  Michel Cler, in his Atelier in Paris, 1989. Photo: Paul Green-Armytage

From Perth, Australia

I first met Michel Cler a long time ago when he visited Western Australia and gave a lecture to the students of architecture. I think that must have been while he and France were working on colour plans for Hong Kong. I remember being struck by what he said about the role of light and water, and about the way surfaces reflect colours onto other surfaces. I visited him in his Paris studio during a period of study leave and he was in Perth again in 1997 when he was a guest speaker at our national conference. I also have a copy of his book Lumières-matières-couleurs. He made great contributions to our ideas about townscape and what he called ‘site spirit’.

Attached are photos that I scanned them from old 35mm slides. I have had a look through my records and found that Michel and France visited Australia in 1988. That is when they gave a lecture to the students of Architecture and I met them for the first time. I had a period of study leave in 1989 which included the AIC congress in Buenos Aires. I started in Europe and met Tom Porter and Byron Mikellides whose book Colour for Architecture I had seen. From their recommendation I visited Jean-Philippe Lenclos and Patrick Desombre in Paris and Giovanni Brino in Turin. I am fairly sure that I also visited Michel on that occasion and took the photo then (see above).

Paul Green-Armytage University Associate, Curtin University 

Poster for the AIC 2012 Interim Meeting in Taipei, Taiwan

Selected Writings

• Cler, Michel and Verena M. Schindler. 2016. Résolument chromatique: nouvelles tendances en architecture. Primaires ‘Couleurs Plurielles’, 78–87.

• Cler, Michel et al. 2013. Chromatictownscape: Colour Concepts for Urban Space: Case Study of Neyron. Proceedings of the 12th Congress of the International Colour Association, 8–12 July 2013, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, ed. by Lindsay MacDonald, Stephen Westland and Sophie Wuerger. [s.l.]: The Colour Group (Great Britain), Vol. 3, 833–836.

• Cler, Michel et al. 2012. Towards New Ambiences of ‘Light–Material–Colour’ in Urban Space. Proceedings of the Interim Meeting of the International Colour Association ‘In Colour We Live: Colour & Environment’, 22–25 September 2012, Taipei, Taiwan, ed. by Tien-Rein Lee and James Shyu. Taipei: Color Association of Taiwan, 454–457.

• Cler, Michel et al. 2011. Colour and Light in Urban Planning: Policy, Palettes and the Sense of Place, Mood and Movement. Proceedings of the Midterm Meeting of the International Colour Association, 7–10 June 2011, Zurich, Switzerland, edited by Verena M. Schindler and Stephan Cuber, Zurich: pro/colore, 348–351.

• Cler, Michel. 2011. Colour Appearance in Urban Chromatic Studies. New Directions in Colour Studies, edited by Carole P. Biggam, Carole A. Hough, Christian J. Kay and David R. Simmons, University of Glasgow, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 181–189.

• Cler, Michel, et al. 2011. Segmentation, canalisation de la ville, simulacres et prothèses pour les ambiances desertées. Faire une ambiance, actes du colloque international, Grenoble, 10–12 septembre 2008, edited by Jean-François Augoyard, Bernin: Editions la Croisée, 140–144.

• Cler, Michel. 2010. Vers de nouvelles ambiances ‘lumières-matières-couleurs’ dans les villes du futur. Habiter demain, de l’utopie a la réalité, edited by Véronique Willemin, Paris: Editions Alternatives, Collection Anarchitecture, 101.

• Cler, Michel and Verena M. Schindler. 2010. Of imaginary and fantasies/phantasms: A critical view of the relationship between colour and food. Proceedings of the Interim Meeting of the International Colour Association (AIC), 29–31 October 2010, Mar del Plata, Argentina, edited by José Luis Caivano and Mabel Amanda López, CD and printed edition, Buenos Aires: Grupo Argentino del Color and Nobuko, 341–344.

• Schindler, Verena M. and Michel Cler. 2009. Colour: Is Dressing Up and Dissolving the Architectural Façade as Skin the Mission of the Architect Today? Proceedings of the 11th Congress of the International Colour Association, 27 September – 2 October 2009, Sydney, Australia, edited by Dianne Smith, Paul Green-Armytage, Margaret A. Pope and Nick Harkness, CD, Sydney: Colour Society of Australia.

• Cler, Michel et al. 2009. Chromatictownscape. Un Manifesto. Luce e Immagini XIV: 3–6.

• Cler, Michel, et al. 2008. Chromatic Urbanscape: How Specific Geographical Sites Affect Colour and How Colour Has an Effect on Landscape, the Urban Fabric and Architecture. Proceedings of the Interim Meeting of the International Colour Association (AIC), 15–18 June 2008, Stockholm, Sweden, edited by Karin Fridell Anter and Iman Kortbawi, CD, Stockholm: Swedish Colour Centre Foundation.

• Cler, Michel, et al. 2007. Chromatic Harmony as a Goal for Urban Space and Rural Landscape. Proceedings of the International Conference on Colour Harmony, 24–26 April 2007, Budapest, Hungary, edited by Ákos Nemcsics and Ildikó Rozsovits, CD. Budapest: Hungarian National Colour Committee.

• Cler, Michel, et al. 2007. Colour as a Communication Device in Urbanism and Architecture: A Case Study of the New Town of La Croix-Bonnet, Bois d’Arcy, France. Proceedings of the Midterm Meeting of the International Colour Association, 12–14 July 2007, Hangzhou, China, edited by Guanrong Ye and Haisong Xu, Hangzhou: Color Association of China, 219–222.

• Cler, Michel, et al. 2006. Chromatic Studies for Urban Space. Case Study: High School Campus, Lamentin (Guadeloupe, French West Indies). Proceedings of the Interim Meeting of the International Colour Association, 24–27 October 2006, Misty Hills, South Africa, edited by Natasha van Tonder, Johannesburg: Colour Group of South Africa, 116.

• Cler, Michel, et al. 2005. Chromatictownscape: A Manifesto. Colour Communication and Cultural Identity in Urban Planning and Architecture. Proceedings of the 10th Congress of the International Colour Association, 8–13 May 2005, Granada, Spain, edited by Juan L. Nieves and Javier Hernández-Andrés, Granada: Sociedad Española de Óptica and Comité Español de Color, Vol. 1, 405–408.

• Cler, Michel, et al. 2005. Chromatictownscape. Colour Policy in the French Ain Region: Colour Studies for Towns, Villages and Valleys. Proceedings of the 10th Congress of the International Colour Association, 8–13 May 2005, Granada, Spain, edited by Juan L. Nieves and Javier Hernández-Andrés, Granada: Sociedad Española de Óptica and Comité Español de Color, Vol. 2, 1581–1584.

• Cler, Michel. 2004. Against Colour Globalisation. Colour Trends and Colour Collections: Their Use as a Vocabulary and Their Cultural Signification. Proceedings of the Interim Meeting of the International Colour Association, 2–5 Novembre 2004, Porto Alegre, Brazil, edited by José Luis Caivano, CD, Porto Alegre: ABCor–Associação Brasileira da Cor, 208–210.

• Cler, Michel. 2001. Colour Words in Chromatic Urbanscape. Proceedings of the 9th Congress of the International Colour Association, 24–29 June 2001, Rochester, New York, U.S.A., edited by Robert Chung and Allan Rodrigues, SPIE Vol. 4421, Washington: The International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), 142–145.

• Cler, Michel and France Cler. 2000. A Glance on Urban Chromaticscape and Architecture: A Visual Approach of ‘Colour Words Support’. Proceedings of the Interim Meeting of the International Colour Association, 6–7 Novembre 2000, Seoul, Korea, edited by Gi-chul Kim, Seoul: Korean Society of Color Studies, 15–17.

• Cler, Michel. 1997. Colour Context – Site and Culture – in Urban Planning and Architecture. Proceedings of the 8th Congress of the International Colour Association, 25–30 May 1997, Kyoto, Japan, edited by Mitsuo Ikeda and Hirohisa Yaguchi, Tokyo: Color Science Association of Japan, Vol. 2, 879–882.

• Cler, Michel. 1993. Toward an Applied European Chromatic Chart. Proceedings of the 7th Congress of the International Colour Association, 13–18 June 1993, Budapest, Hungary, edited by Antal Nemcsics and János Schanda, Budapest: Hungarian National Colour Committee, Vol. A, P06-1–2.

• Cler, Michel. 1991. Hong Kong Housing Authority. Proceedings of the Midterm Meeting of the International Colour Association, 25–28 June 1991, Sydney, Australia, edited by Bryan Powell, Sydney: Colour Society of Australia (New South Wales Division), 47–49.

• Cler, Michel. 1990. Proceedings, Moscow.

• Cler, France and Michel Cler. 1979. La couleur dans le paysage. Information couleur (revue du Centre Français de la Couleur), January, 5:47–51. See also, Valérie Puerta-Brunel & Philippe Fagot. Eds. Bibliography « Couleur & Architecture », Proceedings Couleur et Architecture. Caen: Maison de l’Architecture de Basse-Normandie, Caen, 1996.

Further Reading

• Schindler, Verena M. 2012. ‘Polychrome Environments’ at the Centre Pompidou in Paris: The Work of France and Michel Cler, Architect–Colour Consultants. Proceedings of the International Interdisciplinary Conference on Colour and Pattern Harmony, 11–13 June 2012, Óbuda University, Budapest, Hungary , CD, Budapest: Hungarian National Colour Committee. Available online, Óbuda University e-Bulletin 3(1)2012

• Schindler, Verena M. 2012. ‘Environnement polychromes’ au Centre Pompidou, exposition présentant notamment des oeuvres de France et Michel Cler. Primaires ‘Couleurs sensibles’ 173, edited by Annie Mollard-Desfour and Laurence Pauliac, Paris: Centre Français de la Couleur, 40–43.

• Singier, Nicole. Ed. 2011. Couleurs, lumières, matières. Ambiances et cadres de vie. Bourg-en-Bresse: CAUE de l’Ain et M&G Editions. vimeo

• Quinton, M. 2011. Entretien de France et Michel Cler. AMC 206: 106–107.

• Россия – Франция: два взгляда на зкогород France – Russie: deux opinions sur “l’écoville”. 2010. Tеxнологии строительствa Building Technologies 4(73):20–27

• Schindler, Verena M. 2009. Michel Cler, France Cler, Pyramide chromatique. Lumière Façades, 1992, Lumière Ponctuelles, 1992. Farb-Systeme 1611–2007, edited by Werner Spillmann, Basel: Schwabe Verlag, 240–243.

• Schindler, Verena M. 2008. On Chromatic Studies for Bridges: Interview with France and Michel Cler. World Architecture ‘Bridges’ (Beijing) 211: 30–33.

• Schindler, Verena M. 2005. Estudio cromático para el Liceo Profesional Regional. 30-60 cuaderno latinoamericano de arquitectura 7: 6.

• Schindler, Verena M. 2004. Farbstudien für Nachhaltigkeit und ökologisches Denken. Applica (CH-Wallisellen) 15/16: 20–29.