From greyness to an explosion of colours

German architecture student Paul Eis gathers in his Instagram account @the_architecture_photographer his personal shots of buildings of Berlin and Hamburg which he strips from their original context and transforms by applying to them bright colours.

Aim of this project is to show that these cities have more to offer than the greyness of their architectural landscape. But how did this all begin?

Paul Eis started his journey with Instagram in the summer 2015, even if architecture can be considered his lifetime passion. His first shots portayed backyards and underground stations, but the lack of colours in his subjects didn’t satisfy him. So, he decided to give them a new look by using bright colours.

The first buildings to undergo his personal makeover were some of the typical socialist housing estates in east Berlin, characterized by very strong rectangular shapes and clean geometries, but also by monotonous shades of white or grey.

In the first step of his project, he coloured only straight facades, then he added whole buildings to his series, including contemporary building from Berlin and Hamburg.

All his images share the same uniform blue background, which acts as one of the characteristic elements of his series, but at the same time it let the viewer's eyes focus on the building itself.

The project could be seen as a way of showing how much of Berlin and Hamburg's architecture can be understood as artwork. Moreover, buildings should not be defined only by shape: colours helps to highlight how interesting and unique these buildings are.

Paul Eis says: “My project is not meant to be a critique on modern architecture, but maybe instead on the rise of boring housing estates. Because of the housing market in Berlin, it is hard to understand why companies take so little care in creating good architecture. Maybe it is the mentality of the buyers or just a lack of interest in architecture. I do not know. But it hurts me every time I see new buildings that seem so dull and I know will look ugly in just a few years, especially when their white facades start to get dirty.”