Natural ultramarine blue, extracted from lapis lazuli, is one of the most expensive pigments in the world. Omnipresent as the colour of the sky, for ages blue is associated with the divine, the mystical, the vast, the incomprehensible, the immaterial. The significance of the colour 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 even went in a never-ending search of the "blue flower".

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

In the context of the seminar we will systematically take a look at searching and finding, interpreting and documenting blue architecture from the 20th century to the present. In doing so, we will move on very different scale levels - from urban ensembles to individual buildings to interior design - as well as in very different cultural areas. The aim of the seminar is the conception of a book publication on the blue architecture of the 20th and 21st centuries, which will be supplemented by articles on a broader range of topics. Again and again we will ask ourselves the question: When and why is a room, when and why is a house blue?