Founded in 1920, Rafael de La-Hoz Arquitectos is a third-generation firm, with major projects in sectors from commercial and civic to residential and leisure, in Spain and beyond. Architect Jesús Román, based in the architecture studio’s head office in Madrid, talks to ColourDesign Library about how the city influences their work, and the studio’s approach to colour.

How does the city of Madrid influence your work, and the way you select colours?

Madrid is one of Europe’s most southerly capitals, and at the same time it’s relatively high - 650 metres above sea level - with no sea or big rivers nearby. That means it doesn’t suffer from fog, the sky is normally very clear and the sun is strong. Even in winter, the sky is blue and we have a lot of bright light. Living with that light affects how we perceive colours.

Rafael de La-Hoz has a long track record in Madrid. What have been the historic attitudes to using colour on buildings there?

Madrid is not very colourful. The façades’ colour comes from the materials, and the city has a long tradition of building in the local red brick. The bases are often granite, and in the past the pale limestone Piedra de Colmenar was used for decorative elements.

How do you work with colours and texture in your designs?

In the firm’s 100-plus years, we’ve always used a lot of natural materials - brick, timber, stone, iron, aluminium - and have worked with their natural colours. The sincerity of the construction and materials is the clear intention of the office. We rarely add colour.

With your tower design, does colour or texture ever play a part?

The most important element of high-rise architecture is the silhouette, how it will be perceived against the skyline or in relation to other nearby towers. And it’s about the impression the façade makes.

For the slender Mohammed VI tower in the Moroccan city of Rabat, we designed a façade of naturally anodised aluminium panels. But the manufacturer warned us that the effect would be patchy and would lack uniformity. 

So we turned to Axalta to find a powder coating that would work better. The white metallic colour we chose has given a totally uniform effect, and because the building has curves, the colour changes according to the light levels. When it’s cloudy, the building looks grey, and when there’s strong sunlight, it looks very bright white. Then there are a range of pearlescent colours in between. 

Much of the tower is glazed, but we designed the south facade to be blind – windowless – to protect it from the sun. Even with its solar panels, which we specified in a complementary off-white colour, the continuous ever-changing façade is quite a statement.