Thanks. That is really informative. I feel a bit better now about the Swiss....thought they were all color-blind for a while. They are just opressed.

While I fail to see your problem anyway. Having seen various colours and shades of colours applied to houses in many countries, I do not regard the "situation" in Switzerland better or worse than in other countries

"Opressed" because of the colours of their building. Jeez, I bet some of the more volatile African nations would love THAT reason to be oppressed.

Switzerland an "oppressed" nation - did you used to be a journo for the Daily Sport?

Brilliant.

bavarians dont drink (much) lager (pils) but helles and weissbier.
jftr.

Is this just a Zurich thing again?

I live in a bright white apartment, just down the road is a huge bright red building, to the side, a bright yellow church.

In town, a lot of the buildings come in different pastel shades (I only noticed last night), some have been covered in cool graffiti (obviously done with consent). Old town has plenty of buildings with colourful murals and bright walls.

I'll admit there is still a lot of 60s, 70s and 80s grey monstrosities around, but overall, better than a red brick estate in the UK.

And the dominant religious denomination in the city of Luzern is...?

It's another Zurich = Switzerland thread, most of the residents are still Swiss....

I think it was supposed to be "conservative".

We also had gray everything in commie times, though. And now we live in another gray little town, but a stunning view of lake and mountains behind the gray buildings. So, who cares, really.

Maybe if one has stunning view, one may not need flashy buildings?

I think you missed the question a bit. While Zürich is (majority-wise) Protestant, Luzern is (majority-wise) Roman-Catholic.

No, I got it, but the OP is complaining about Swiss colour schemes, not the colour schemes of protestant towns. The thread follows with more posts on why the swiss may not have colourful towns.

Are the catholic cantons not swiss?

It's not just the Swiss who are conservative.

After not initially telling us the colour when I queried that it was not mentioned in the contract, our Swiss architect told us not to worry and that we would like the colour once he had decided what it would be.

A few months later when we found out us that it was going paint the flats purple, I told him in no uncertain terms that we would not accept that and he could stuff his contract.
Luckily, the other flat owners agreed with us and he had a re-think.

Let's just say it's not grey, brown, white or beige.

It is NOT a question about Swiss or not Swiss, but about style. Luzern and Freiburg/Fribourg are Baroque cities and so trendwise with more colourful buildings of older age. The denomination of course is irrelevant with modern buildings. If I look out through the window, the first is white, the second a kind of red, the third blue, the fourth and fifth grey and white, the 6th red, and the 7th green-blue, and the 8th white and green.

In the old city of Zurich, it is mixed as follows

Just so long as we get some colourful buildings on this thread, it was the general tone of the thread I was responding to. The general "Why are the Swiss so....?" followed by stereotype. When I posted, it didn't seem as if anyone actually lived anywhere with a colourful building in sight.

Original Poster here....

Just to clarify; I am very very new to Switzerland and have only seen the area in and around Zurich. Also, within the city, I never even noticed the paint schemes. It was mostly in the small towns like Pfaefikon that I was struck by the odd coloring.

This thread has helped me understand it a bit more. Thank you all.

The nice small dog has nothing to do with the thread, but I could not resist

But the following views of Schaffhausen HAVE :

Here's some from Luzern









Need to get my camera out, there's plenty more.

I thought the dog was a nice touch.

The graffiti is a bit posh up your end, innit?

Over here Basel way there's loads of brightly coloured buildings, bordering on garish to be honest - looks very cheerful on the whole.

Ja, the older generations knew more about Graffiti than this younger generation of spray painters!

But seriously now ....... We want to paint our house, and the shutters, but have been told we have to have the permission of the Gemeinde for this (Wolffi-man, I think I got the spelling correct THIS time?) ( keep forgetting if there is or is not an R in that?)....

But the Acid Green/ or Acid Yellow seems to get approved in some towns .. yugghhh ......!

White is nice ... and Sunshine Yellow doors .. and Buttercup yellow shutters .. or a Red Door ...... but I gather that the grey around the windows is pretty standard huh? ...... either a "cold" grey ... or a "warm" grey, depending on the other colours.

Who, I wonder, is in charge of colour selection down at the Gemeinde?