Natural ultramarine blue, extracted from lapis lazuli, is one of the most expensive pigments in the world. Omnipresent as the color of the sky, blue always possesses something divine, mystical, wide, something incomprehensible and immaterial.

The significance of the color blue in art and literature has been well researched: from the 12th century onwards, for example, it was repeatedly found in highly charged iconographic form in the depiction of the Mantle of Mary; romantic literature has always sought for the "blue flower".

The blue in architecture, on the other hand, which is obviously very rarely used, has never been examined thoroughly. The decision for a blue house is usually not a natural or even accidental one; after all, the blue color in most cases does not result from the basic building material, but is artificially applied in the form of paint, plaster or glaze.

The aim of this field of research, which will run over several semesters, is to search and find, interpret and document blue architecture, and to do so across cultures and epochs to the present day. In doing so, we will work on very different scale levels - from urban ensembles to individual buildings to interior design.

When and why is a certain space, when and why is a house blue?