Chromatic Shifts: A Study of Color in Architectural Representations Across Design Stages

This paper presents a mixed-method study that combines qualitative coding with quantitative computational analysis to investigate the use of representational color across the architectural design process by comparing sketches, technical drawings, and buildings. Eighty-eight works by 50 architects/designers were analyzed using TinEye's MulticolorEngine for palette extraction and CIELAB for perceptual measurements, which generated a quantitative report on color visibility and palette formation in architectural representations. The study shows that color use is not linear but conditional and practice-dependent as sketches tend to exaggerate chroma for representational purposes, technical drawings minimize it in line with conventions of clarity, consistent with representational conventions that emphasize clarity, and photographs reintroduce color but with low median chroma due to material and contextual neutrality. Qualitative coding distinguishes between color as an entity in itself and color as a representation, revealing its dual role across stages. Few studies have systematically investigated the architectural design process from sketches to realized buildings through computational color extraction. Thus, this study contributes to the intersection of design research and color science through a reproducible methodology for analyzing color visibility, palette tendencies, and practice-specific trajectories in architecture.