After a long time struggle of the residents in a housing cooperative, the decision about the new color of the houses were made: All houses must be painted gray.
For more than 20 years, the residences in Granlund housing cooperative in Trondheim have painted their houses in different colors. But in June, the cooperative board decided that yellow, green and red houses have to be painted in dark gray . Some residents reacted to the decision by suggesting the new color will make them live in sad environment. The decision was made without involving the residents, resulting a resistance camp against the decision. The colorful house owners have been organized and managed to have an extraordinary general meeting with the hope of changing the board’s decision.
In advance, they even got a report about the impact of color on human psychology from a color researcher to convince the neighbors and the board.
But their big struggle did not change the decision. 9 voted for keeping the free color choice, while 10 neighbors voted for uniformed dark gray color on all houses, according to NRK.
– We have been working for several weeks for this. This is a big disappointment. Democracy is important, and we just have to follow the decision, “says one of the reseidents.
He believes that lack of information about how colors impact people caused the neighbors to choose gray and that most people care most about “doing like the neighbors”.
Many people see that there are many gray houses now and choose the same. I think it’s sad if it continues. The positive thing about this matter is that we hopefully have inspired others to choose colors, says the residence Svein Erling Lode to NRK.
