Colorwise, even the greatest contemporary architecture can seem like a long drive through a gray, wintry rain. Flashes of color are rare, and gray, black, and silver are the norm. But things are changing. These last few years have produced a surplus of technicolor treats. Here are eight recent projects that caught our eye.

With hat tips to: Arch Daily, Dezeen, Collectiva, Contemporist, and Spoon & Tomago

This "Mountain Dwelling," by BIG architects, doesn't have much color when seen from far off--but up close, the colors pop.

Colors in particular are used to enliven transitional spaces...

...such as the parking garage, which would otherwise present an intimidating, austere slog for residents.

The Sports and Leisure Center in St. Cloud, by KOZ architects, wears its colors on its sleeves.

The interior spaces aren't exactly subtle.

The Songzhuang Artist Residence in Beijing, designed by DnA Architects, would be pretty straight-laced and austere if it weren't for its red underbelly.

The red, which again is subtle from far-off, comes to life when you're actually on the building's grounds and below its dramatic overhangs.

This garden for Bilbao, designed by Balmori Associates, proves that landscape designers are also experimenting with bold, graphic applications of color.

The "Net Forest" at the Hakone Open Air Museum in Japan was designed by Tezuka Associates. Outside, it looks like a giant wooden igloo...

...inside, it looks like a straight-up Candyland fantasy. It would be still be fun without all the colors--but also, perhaps, nothing special.

The Open Air Pool Eybesfeld by Pichler & Traupmann Architekten. Pepto, anyone?

Not exactly subtle.

Prague's National Technical Library, by Projektil Architekti, looks handsome and competent on the outside, as befits its contents. Note the height measurement on the outside, which nods at technical drawings.

Inside, it's a different story--a blaze of colors. Which is probably how many engineers see their own work: boring on the outside, but inside, humming with exciting ideas.

Careful--but bold--doses of color completely transform spaces that would otherwise be cold.

This community center in Hoogvliet, Netherlands, exemplifies the whimsical, unabashedly loud work of FAT Architects, based on London. Much like post-modernists of twenty years ago, FAT mashes up both historical and contemporary references

The building's certainly hard to miss.