One objection that is sometimes raised against the possibility of resurrecting ornament in modern architecture is the expense of it, whether real or perceived. However, the residential vernacular architecture of the world presents us with many examples of one possible solution: using paint to ornament or decorate buildings that are otherwise plain (i.e. lacking in fractal scales). A few examples are presented below.

The counter-objection against introducing this practice into our own building is that, just as we no longer have a genuine vernacular architecture, we also no longer have a shared vocabulary of unconscious, communal folk images or motifs to draw from; indeed, we no longer have a folk culture at all.

We do however have a precedent for what widespread ‘exterior decoration’ would probably look like in the modern context: the mainstreaming of tattoos. Instead of the ‘variety within uniformity’ and symbolic/ritual significance of say traditional Polynesian or Ainu tattoos, or even of underworld or sailors’ tattoos, tattoos in our own society are simple self-expression; everyone is free to pick and choose designs and styles from every era and every area of the world, or to make up something ‘unique’ according to their own imaginative whims. Imagine the architectural equivalent of this: houses with LIVE LAUGH LOVE and other inspirational slogans written in big bold letters across their facades.

But there is still a lot of potential in the idea of painted ornament in a modern setting, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be one of the architect’s tools of the trade, to be at least considered if the circumstances suggest it and the conditions are right.