Environmental Health - Lazure

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By: Robert Logsdon

If health is the harmonious balance of spirit, soul, life, and body, we can help by creating a harmonious environment. Design elements, including architecture and sculpture, natural and artificial light, furnishings and use of color can bring great balance and healing. Integrating the arts in a balanced harmonious symphony is the ultimate goal.

One very effective means of harmonizing an interior space is the use of 'lazure' painting—the use of transparent or translucent layers of color over a white painted surface. The word derives from I'azure (old French) which I borrowed in 1976 to create a term for our own American method of painting and all it entails—and to differentiate it from the German "lasur" which is used more generally as the English "glaze."

Lazure allows light to reflect back from a surface through layers of applied color resulting in great luminosity. The colors seem more spacial, allowing the walls to appear less solid or restraining. Nuances are created by the interplay of different layers interacting with one another. As with colors in nature, lazure is never monotonous. Monotone is tiring; variation enlivens.

Lazure may be used to enhance architectural features, soften difficult architectural elements, provide a more spacious feeling or a greater sense of warmth and inner glow in a room with minimal light. Its studied use will support the specific functions of a space.

Finally, lazure can enhance patient recovery, promote well-being in the work place, encourage activity, relaxation, or worship. Color is a major influence in our environment and it is easier to change than the architecture of a building. Color is the language of the soul and the mediator between the outer world and the inner world. We breathe in and out with color.

Robert Logsdon, logsdonlazure@aol.com

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