IROKAGE: A TOWNSCAPE COLOUR PLANNING SUPPORT SYSTEM USING KANSEI AND COLOUR HARMONY EVALUATIONS

Townscape colours have been a main factor in urban development. For townscape colours, keeping colour harmony within the environment is a common goal. In addition to the colour harmony, expressing characteristics and impressions of the town in townscape colours are other meaningful goals. This paper describes IroKage, a colour planning support system for improving townscapes. The system offers some colour combination proposals based on three elements: colour harmony, impressions of the townscape, and cost for the change of colours. First, two evaluation models to quantify colour harmony and impression of the townscape are developed from the approach of colour harmony principles and Kansei engineering, respectively. Next, the system is constructed using an evolutionary algorithm and the two evaluation models. After the construction, performance tests are conducted. The results show that the system has achieved sufficient ability to propose appropriate colour combinations with minimum colour changes.