Profile

Selected Public Lectures

Fiona McLachlan is Professor of Architectural Practice at the University of Edinburgh. She teaches architectural design and professional practice and is a past Head of the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA). Her practice– E & F McLachlan Architects– specialized in social housing and residential projects over a thirty-year period and has been included in international exhibitions and publications. The practice won a Colour in the Built Environment award for their work.

She is the author of three books: Architectural Colour in the Professional Palette, (Routledge, 2012)– which was stimulated by her work in practice– a co-author of Colour Strategies in Architecture, (Schwabe Verlag, 2015) and author of Colour Beyond the Surface: Art in Architecture (Lund Humphries, 2022).

Fiona is interested in the inter-relationships between practice, research and teaching. Colour design for architecture links across each of these areas– through collaborative practice with architects, knowledge exchange, consultancy, colour design installations, public lectures, peer-reviewed research articles, conference papers and invited Continuing Professional Development (CPD) talks. University teaching is focussed on her undergraduate course On Colour: in Architecture. She has also supervised a number of doctoral students on topics relating to colour.

Architectural Colour in the Professional Palette, (Routledge, 2012)

Contents
1. Introduction: Investigations in the Professional Palette  2. Form, Colour and Material Surface  3. The Unattainable Myth of Novelty: Caruso St John  4. An Intuitive Palate: O’Donnell and Tuomey  5. Edges and Surfaces: Gigon/Guyer  6. Synergies and Dischords: Sauerbruch Hutton  7. Transformational, Instrumental Colour: UN Studio  8. The Influence of An Artist: Erich Wiesner and Otto Steidle  9. The Brightness of Yellow: AHMM  10. Playing Space: Laws, Rules and Prescription

Colour Strategies in Architecture,
(Schwabe Verlag, 2015)

Co-authors: Stefanie Wettstein, Marcella Wenger-Di Gabriele,
Lino Sibillano, AnneMarie Neser

Haus der Farbe, Zurich

Contents

Acknowledgements.  Foreword by Iain Boyd Whyte. 1. Introduction. 2. Lux Guyer: Painterly Promenade  3. Hans Scharoun: Holistic Interplay  4. Basil Spence: Tectonics Clarified  5. Rainer Rümmler: Immersive Pop 6. Reiach and Hall: Hushed Tonalities  7. Knapkiewicz & Fickert: Second Layer  Conclusion.

Colour Beyond the Surface: Art in Architecture
(Lund Humphries, 2022)

Contents
1. Introduction. Section 1: The Architecture. 2. Surface Tensions; 3. Architects as Spatial Painters. Section 2: The Artwork. 4. Pictorial Space 5. Ethereal Material: Colour, Light and Material Surface. 6. The Artists’ Perspective. 7. Collaborative Practices. 8. Constructing the inseparable: A House for Essex. 9. Reflections on Art in Architecture. Notes. Bibliography

Book Chapters

McLachlan, F. ‘Visual heuristics for colour design’. Visual Research Methods in Architecture. Troiani, I. & Ewing, S. (eds.). Bristol: Intellect Books, 2021., p. 335-352 18 p.

McLachlan, F. ‘The Unattainable Myth of Novelty’. Caruso St John Collected Works, Volume 2, 2000-2012. Caruso, A. & St John, P. (eds.). London: MACK Books, 2023., p. 60-69

McLachlan, F. ‘Chromatic transactionsJan’. Sinta Tantra. Tantra, S. (ed.). London/Berlin: Sinta Tantra/ Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, p. 111-12213

Colour in Healthcare

https://books.ed.ac.uk/edinburgh-diamond/catalog/book/ED-9781836450238

McLachlan, F. X. Leng, ‘Colour here, there, and in-between—Placemaking and wayfinding in mental health environments’. Color Research and Application, Volume 46, Issue1, February 2021 Pages 125-139 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/col.22570

Research articles

McLachlan, F. . M. Lyu, X. Leng, ‘Lustrous wrappings: complex colour and collaborative practices in the contemporary ceramic façade’. Color Research and Application, Volume 48, Issue 5 Special Issue: Environmental Color Design, September/October 2023 Pages 622-638. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/col.22831

McLachlan, F. and B. Yu. ‘Vague Memories: Old colour in the city: The re-introduction of Copperas render in Scotland’. Proceedings of the 2016 Colour-Culture-Science Conference. Godyń, M., Groborz, B. & Kwiatkowska-Lubańska, A. (eds.). Krakow: Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, 2018, p. 205-2138
https://colourday.pl/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/ccs2018.pdf

McLachlan, F. ‘Shifting and unstable: The role of colour and light in affording multiple readings of architecture’ .Journal of the International Colour Association (JAIC).17, 2017, Special Issue, p. 28-3710 https://web.archive.org/web/20191112102220/https://www.aic-color.org/resources/Documents/jaic_v17_02.pdf

McLachlan, F. ‘Close reading through colour’. Architecture Ireland: Journal of the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland., May/June 2019, 305, p. 19-24 https://www.riai.ie/discover-architecture/architecture-ireland-digital

McLachlan, F. and McLachlan, E. ‘Colour and Contingency: Theory into Practice’, Architectural Theory Review.19, 2, 2015, p. 243-258 16 p. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13264826.2014.995338