Blue is my colour, Designing as an answer to nature

Blue is my colour
Designing as an answer to nature
And discovering the essense of female architecture

-Blue is my colour- is the title Tonny Zwollo gives to her book. In five episodes, she explains her ideas about the invisible element of space in designing and architecture, especially the open spaces like patios, inner courts, schoolyards, town squares, marketplaces, gardens or parks, which she regards as essential.

She calls the open square -or empty field- that is brought to life by human activity the -female- or -negative- element in designing. -Female- as opposed to -male- and -negative- as opposed to -positive- do not imply value judgements; they are merely terms that indicate polarities existing in nature.

Tonny Zwollo (Amsterdam, 1942) left the Netherlands as a young student of architecture in search of the origins of designing. Via France and Spain she made her way to the indigenous communities of Mexico, Ecuador and Peru. It was there that she discovered the significance of the -female- element in architecture. With very little money and often with the assistance of local children and their parents she helped to design a better world for them to live in. She had only simple means at her disposal, but this forced her to make the most of the outdoor space available, in the same way a pantomime artist expresses more by a single gesture than a speaker does by a long speech.

With this book Tonny Zwollo introduces the idea of -female architecture-, and brings designing and architecture closer to the public.