SYNESTHETIC Research & Design Lab

Loukia Tsafoulia's and Severino Alfonso’s creative and research praxis is rooted in multimedia art, inclusive design, and cognitive sciences. They create sensory multi-modal structures that draw associations between the symbolic world of objects and spaces and notions of embodiment, corporeality, and acceptance. 

 

Their shared interests—spanning theoretical inquiry and applied research—converge in the mission of the Synesthetic Research and Design Lab (SR&DL) at the College of Architecture and the Built Environment at Thomas Jefferson University, where they are faculty in the Departments of Architecture & Interior Design. They organize the yearly International Neurodiversity and the Built Environment symposia at Thomas Jefferson University and have contributed numerous peer-reviewed book chapters and journal papers that expand research and advocacy related to equity and belonging within the built environment. 

 

Their creative work has been exhibited in international art and design venues such as BASE Milan (2025), the Trajan's Market Museum of the Imperial Fora in Rome, Italy (2022), the 2021 European Cultural Center, Venice Architecture Biennale in Venice, Italy, the Municipal Theater of Piraeus in Athens, Greece (2021-2022), the IE Creativity Center/Casa de la Moneda in Segovia, Spain, the London 3dPrint Show, ICFF in New York and more. Their creative activities also include their art residency at the S+T+ARTS ReSilence EU Program and the VOICE EU Horizon program, a writing fellowship for ROM for kunst og arkitektur, Metode’s first volume Deep Surface, and a research fellowship at the Jefferson Institute of Smart & Healthy Cities, amongst others.