Colour Workshops for Architecture & design studios
Transform your approach to colour.
Delivered inside your architecture studio or design practice, Lymesmith workshops bring evidence-based colour theory, practical tools, and real-world colour case studies to life, helping architects and designers to use colour with confidence and impact.
I run two types of workshops
for architecture firms and spatial design studios
seminarS
thought-provoking topics on architectural colour design
1-2 hours | In-Person or Online
workshops
on colour foundations and place-based colour design
3.5 hours | In-Person
Colour is literally everywhere, all at once, all the time.
so why do so many architects lack the confidence and skills to actually use it?
Architects will manage the risk of getting colours wrong by adhering to simple ‘materials’ based on tectoniccolour palettes.
However, these strategies may not serve every brief. Most colour training focusses on colour design for 2 dimensions, or teach colour psychology in a simplistic or formulaic way. Spatial designers need colour training attuned to architectural thinking.
This is where I come in.
My workshops focus on colour in the world and colour in the wild, teaching architects and spatial designers how to apply colour and materiality in complex environments.
Colourful Language
1-2 hours, in-person or online
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The Threat of Colour
There’s a good reason that many architects feel reluctant to use strong colours in their buildings. Applied colour can manipulate and interfere withhow a building or place isperceived
This 1-hour seminar explores the opportunities and challenges that colour offers to architecture.
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Beyond Black and White
Are your ‘go-to’ colours blackand white? This provocative seminar challenges designers to deepen their understanding of this ‘uncompromising’ pair.
In this 1-hour seminar, you’ll learn the science and neuroscience of high contrast colour palettes, giving you the tools to use them with purpose, for human well-being.
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Don't Look Up! Do Ceilings Have To Be So Ugly?
This seminar focuses on one of the most overlooked yet psychologically potent surfaces in architecture: the ceiling.
This 1-hour seminar inspires you to reclaim the potential of ceilings to deliver beauty and delight, by ditching the ceiling white.
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Colour in Trauma Informed Design
The growing fields of neuroscience and neuroarchitecture continue to show that our environments fundamentally affect our well-being.
This 2-hr seminar gives you the tools to advocate for better design, based on the science behind Trauma-Informed Design (TID).
Book a call to discuss bringing an online or in-person seminar to your team.
Enquire now
Download the PDF for information on each seminar, plus pricing and inclusions.
Want to know more?
ARCHITECTURAL COLOUR workshops
3.5 hours, delivered in-person
Foundations of Architectural Colour Design
Learn the essential language, techniques and theory for applying good colour design to your built environment projects.
This course covers:
Colour theory for architects
Loosening your death grip on vivid white
The key colour strategies every architect needs
What is colour appropriate to architecture?
Colour conversations with clients
Introduction to Place Based Colour Design
Discover Lymesmith’s philosophy of ‘place-based’ colour design. Participants will learn to work with context, creating colour palettes in response to a site and a project brief. The workshop is hands on and engaging, using trace, coloured pencils and colour samples.
This course covers:
An overview of key Lymesmith projects
In-depth case study of my place-based colour process
A hands-on session designing a colour palette and experimenting with colours on a 3-dimensional space.
Book a call to discuss colour workshops for your team.
Enquire now
Download the PDF for detailed information and pricing on each workshop.
Want to know more?
EMILY’S TESTIMONIAL
The first Lymesmith Colour Workshop was held in Tasmania - here’s what Practice Director Emily Taylor of Core Collective Architects had to say afterwards.
About
sonia van de haar
Hello, I’m Sonia!
I am passionate about the potential of intelligent colour design to create a built environment that connects people to place and enhances human well-being.
My qualifications in architecture and fine arts gives me a unique insight into colour design that is attuned to the particular needs and concerns of architects.
Through my design studio LYMESMITH, I love helping my clients to unlock the potential of colour and material to transform buildings and create memorable places. I collaborate with a broad cross section of design professionals, from sole practitioners to large established firms, with Councils, developers and private clients, on all scales of projects in the built environment.
In 2023 I began teaching my award-winning colour design methodology to colour curious architects and spatial designers around the country.
10 reasons architects need Lymesmith’s colour design training
Colour cannot be avoided. Every decision made when specifying materials is a decision about colour.
Learning to see ‘colour as material’ will unlock new potential in your design practice.
Understanding how your colour strategy is as crucial as your colour palette will transform your practice.
User experience is key to every buildings’ success, colour fundamentally affects user experience.
Sensitive colour design is crucial in both trauma informed design and biophilic design.
Intelligent colour design creates better buildings for human beings.
Colour offers low budget / high impact transformations of existing buildings - can you afford to ignore it?
Colour is complex, challenging, changeable. Learn to make it work for you.
Communicating your colour concepts effectively is part of every Lymesmith course.
Only 16% of architects are happy with their level of colour design knowledge - chances are you are one of the 84% who want to know more!
Bring Architectural Colour Design into Your Practice
Colour should never be an afterthought. It can be an architectural tool, helping you to shape space, create atmosphere, and contribute to human well-being.
If you’re ready to expand your team’s capabilities and bring intentional colour design into your design process, these workshops are designed for you.
Whether your team needs a clear, practical foundation or wants to explore deeper place-based approaches, both workshops are designed to meet designers where they’re at.
Book a free call with me to discuss your requirements.
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“I’ve just attended Lymesmith’s Colour Workshop in Hobart. It was fantastic and eye opening! Sonia’s use of real examples from her own work as well as global and local precedents was really inspiring and helped me to understand the colour theory and principles that she was describing. It’s given me more confidence in talking about colour to clients.”
Emily Taylor, Core Collective Architects
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“Sonia, your philosophy and theories on colour are game changing and I can’t wait to learn more”.
Michelle Lee, Architect, Sydney
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“Colour is rarely discussed, so it was wonderful to gain an insight into the Lymesmith process. It was great to play with a real example and see the actual built results... It was an inspiring course, and I was excited to get out my coloured pencils after leaving them all alone for so many years! Thank you, Sonia.”
Karryn Dargie, In-Teria Architects, Tasmania
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"The course gave a language to the way we have already been using colour in our work without realising it, as well as presented the ways to develop it further. It also introduced other strategies that could be used when thinking about applying colour in architecture."
Vesna Trobec, Studio Trobec
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"I love that I'll now be able to consider colour as another layer / design strategy to inform and connect to place. I'm really looking forward to integrating this knowledge to see how colour can be used as intrinsic to the spatial qualities of a design. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!"
Charmaine Pang, Charmaine Pang Architect
