From a playful furniture collection to a collapsible dress, we’ve rounded up 10 of the best purple projects from Dezeen’s archive that recall Pantone‘s latest colour of the year.
Last week, colour company Pantone named Very Peri as its colour of the year for 2022. Made from a combination of violet-red undertones and shades of blue, the colour sits somewhere within the purple spectrum. However, the colour company is describing it as a “periwinkle blue”.
Purple is historically connected with royalty and creativity and its use in architecture and design often reflects these connotations.
“The colour is still routinely associated with royalty, extravagance, wealth and power,” wrote Michelle Ogundehin in an opinion piece on Dezeen.
“It was the colour of the elite. A portent of vanity, greed and pride,” she added.
Read on for a selection of projects that make the most of this versatile colour:
Ultima Thule by Stiliyana Minkovska
London-based architect Stiliyana Minkovska has designed three undulating birthing chairs collectively called Ultima Thule, which provide women with additional support during childbirth.
Each of the ergonomic chairs come in a shade of light purple and is designed to help women position themselves for a more comfortable birth.
Find out more about Ultima Thule ›
South Korean fashion designer Sun Woo Chang‘s In Between collection aims to provide wearers with a “portable home” that can be easily collapsed.
Among other items in the 13-piece collection is this two-tone, floor-length dress that is purple in the front and lilac in the back. Steel wire and PVC tubes were used to create rings around the dress, much like the design of a pop-up tent.
Find out more about In Between ›
Mathematics: The Winton Gallery at the Science Museum by Zaha Hadid Architects
Huge translucent curls form a canopy above this gallery space designed by Zaha Hadid Architects inside London’s Science Museum.
The mathematics gallery was modelled on a wind tunnel for a 1920s plane and the studio covered it in violet light to bring items from the museum’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics collections to life.
Find out more about Mathematics: The Winton Gallery ›
Cross Border Xpress (CBX) by Legorreta
Instead of building a wall along Mexico’s border to the US, as desired by former US president Donald Trump, Mexican firm Legorreta built a terminal and bridge that makes crossings quicker.
The 14,788-square-foot (1,374-square-metre) walkway connects the existing Tijuana International Airport in Mexico with an airport terminal in San Diego. It is clad in a bold purple panelling that makes it stand out against the mundane city airport surroundings.
Bring London Together by Yinka Ilori
London-based designer Yinka Ilori temporarily transformed 18 pedestrian crossings in central London, using his signature colourful circles and lines.
Ilori swapped the traditional black and white stripes for candy-coloured shades of blue, orange, pink, green and purple.
Find out more about Bring London Together ›
London fashion label Dead Lotus Couture has created a collection of 12 vintage-style womenswear items made of natural latex and fake fur.
Within the collection is this shiny purple two-piece that features flared trousers that nod to the 1970s and oversized buttons, and which wouldn’t be out of place on a character from a Wes Anderson film.
Visitors to a park in Xiangyang are met with over 500 bright purple steel fins that are fitted with LED lights and internal speakers playing traditional Chinese tracks.
The installation is located inside Myrtle Tree Garden, a two-square-mile park inhabited by a collection of 1,000-year-old myrtle trees with vibrant purple foliage.
Beijing-based architecture studio Penda aimed for the rows of the metallic purple columns to look like a miniature metropolis.
Find out more about The Soundwave ›
Furniture collection by Crosby studios
Russian design firm Crosby Studios has made no secret of its love for the colour purple. It used the colour for a dining table that doubles as a merry-go-round as well as throughout the founder’s own apartment in New York.
This furniture and accessories collection, which was unveiled at the 2018 NYCxDesign festival, comprises designs in a wide variation of purple hues.
Find out more about the furniture collection ›
Purple and blue images of Melbourne‘s nighttime skyline make up the images in photographer Tom Blachford‘s experimental series.
The photographer used extended exposure times and lens rotation to create images reminiscent of the ethereal building holograms seen in Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi film Blade Runner.
Find out more about Centro Verso ›
Rain Room by Random International
After the sudden death of beloved musician Prince back in 2016, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art‘s Rain Room was transformed into a tribute to the artist’s famous track Purple Rain. Visitors could play in the purple rain installation without getting wet.
After the song’s release, the colour became synonymous with the artist, and many works created after his death were based around the hue.
Find out more about Rain Room ›
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