Buttressed Mistral Brick

Old French bouterez, thrusting-mass — past-participle of buttress, derived from bouter (to thrust). As a color modifier, buttressed implies a saturated-and-architecturally-supported quality, the deep-rich color of Gothic-Cathedral flying-buttress-and-rib-vault stone-architecture. Sits at the bold-and-fortified end of the grid, parallel to fortified and reinforced.

Provençal mistral, cold-northwest-wind-of-Provence. As a color modifier, mistral implies a cold-Provençal-and-Rhône-Valley-wind quality, the visual register of Provençal-and-Rhône-Valley-mistral hand-cold-Provençal-and-Rhône-Valley-wind Provençal-and-Rhône-Valley-mistral-and-Alpilles mistral-and-cold-Provençal-and-Rhône-Valley-wind surfaces under Provençal-and-Rhône-Valley-mistral-and-Alpilles Avignon-and-Saint-Rémy-and-Camargue cold-Rhône-Valley-wind-light. Sits at the modifier-and-weather end of the grid, parallel to sirocco and gust in usage.

Fired clay, mineral red. The color refers to common building brick — iron-rich earthenware kilned to the specific dusky red-orange of a Victorian terrace, a Roman aqueduct, an adobe wall in New Mexico. Less saturated than ruby, warmer than burgundy, with a chalky cast that reads as architectural rather than decorative.