Episode 12: ELASTIC | ABSORBABLE | SPACE: Loukia Tsafoulia, Architect
The conversation with Loukia Tsafoulia covers her various multi-disciplinary projects. We first speak about the book she has edited and curated, titled 'Transient Spaces', and her devotion to exploring belonging for migrant and refugee populations.
Her other works examine the connections between design, technology and science, specifically the human body, and its sensory interactions with objects and place. A project we speak about is an installation now being exhibited at the the Venice Biennale, called 'Synesthesia'.
Loukia Tsafoulia is a registered architect-engineer TEE-TCG. She received her Post Professional MS in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University in New York and she is currently a PhD candidate at NTU Athens. Her work explores the dynamics between design and scientific fields, and it is centered on the human body and its interactions with the objects and environments it negotiates. She is the cofounder of PLB Architectural Design and Research Studio, and an assistant professor at the College of Architecture and the Built Environment, Thomas Jefferson University where she has cofounded the Synesthetic Research and Design Lab. The Synesthetic Research and Design Lab (SR&DL) serves as a collaborative research and prototyping platform where interactive design and emergent health sciences meet. The Lab collaborates with the Center for Autism and Neurodiversity and the Occupational Therapy Department at TJU, in building of a foundation of knowledge which addresses all-inclusive ways for inhabiting and perceiving our environments. This collaboration stimulates dialogues amongst designers, medical field experts and neurodiverse individuals. Loukia has taught in New York, at Pratt Institute, Parsons/The New School, CCNY/the Spitzer School of Architecture, and NYCC of Technology, and has lectured in academic institutions in the US East Coast, Madrid, Athens, and various cities in China. She is the editor of the book publications titled Transient Spaces and KatOikia, Housing in the Age of Rapid Globalization, Ubiquitous Technologies, and Information. Her design work has been exhibited internationally, with ‘Synthesthesia’ a traveling installation being exhibited at the ECC Venice Biennale, ‘Time Space Existence’ 2021. ‘Synesthesia’ is a pilot in a series of interactive, perceptive installations of the SR&DL that responds to human presence.
https://www.synestheticdesignlab.com
https://www.synestheticdesignlab.com/blog
Article SR&DL Thomas Jefferson University
TRANSCRIPT EXCERPT
“The idea of territoriality was definitely an important one we wanted to address. It might not allow physical bodies within, but it does absorb them visually. So, for us, it is a message for our times. And again, we do want to construct a narrative that moves away from the ideal form, and more towards a performance of bodies that generates space. We also did work to evoke what is a responsive environment, after all? What does it mean? Where does it come from? You know, what is smart? We're very critical to the whole notion of the smart. And definitely, synesthesia derives from that larger question of what is the process that links humans, machines and spaces, and how can we navigate it better to understand the nonhuman versus human interactions, within our built environments?”
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