Blank State: An Architectural Coloring Book

by Fundamental Berlin

Blank State is more than a coloring it is an exercise in collaboration, inviting the participant to contribute to the act of creation. Architecture and urban planning impacts our lives dramatically, dictating how we interact with our everyday environments, yet they are largely out of the layperson's control. This book allows everyone to make their mark through the use of color and value. Starting with prehistory and progressing through a re-imagined past, present and future, this book reinvents an architectural legacy, a "blank state" ready to be colored in or not. All that is needed is imagination and a willingness to dream.

88 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2018

Reviews

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cool coloring book but it’s weirdly sexist, especially for a book with so little text:

“The time is emperors and kings has (mostly) passed” and there were no empresses or queens
“The centre of every man’s existence is a dream.” Yes, I’m aware that it’s a quotation, but it wasn’t the only option.
“Perhaps a good city plan is like makeup on a woman,” as though we live in a world where men and people of other genders don’t wear makeup, but women are obligated to.
“Farmers’ wives” - women apparently aren’t farmers?

The other issue I had is that there is not much mention of accessible design - there are a lot of stairs (why?) and a few ramps, but no mention at all of that not everyone can use stairs or how a city becomes more accessible for people with disabilities over time.

The coloring book part is cool.