SYMPOSIUM // Neurodiversity: Building Community and Rethinking the Built Environment

Register here!

Detailed event schedule along with the Zoom link to follow upon registration.

About this Event: Please join us for the symposium titled Neurodiversity: Building Community and Rethinking the Built Environment; An online, 4-day, cross-disciplinary event of critical interactions addressing all-inclusive ways for inhabiting and perceiving our environments. The event aims to stimulate dialogue amongst designers, medical field experts, and people with Autism Spectrum Disorder in regard to the inclusivity of our current environments and with particular focus on designing for neurodiverse individuals and those with ASD. The format for the event is conversational with pairings of speakers from the design fields with speakers from the medical fields as well as speakers with ASD and their caregivers. An InDialogue session in which speakers and design students are engaged in moderated discussions follows each pairing as well as Q&A sessions open to the general audience. A round table discussion with speakers from all four days will conclude the event on Monday, September 14th.

Dates & Themes: • Friday, September 11th, 9.00am- 1.30pm EST // NEURODIVERSITY: FOUNDATION • Saturday, September 12th, 9.00am- 4.00pm EST // DESIGN FRAMEWORKS: Evaluation Strategies • Sunday, September 13th, 9.00am- 4.00pm EST // SENSORY ERGO-DESIGN: The Human body as a catalyst • Monday, September 14th, 9.00am- 1.30pm EST // INCLUSIVE FUTURES

Place:

Online. Link to follow upon registration.

Discussants: Sean Ahlquist // Severino Alfonso // Christopher Banks // Jaime Bassman // Hansel Bauman // Caroline Borgia // Seb Choe // Jennifer Cook O’Toole // Erica Daniels // Brian Foti // Eron Friedlander // Brooke Goodspeed // Adam Harris // Stephen K. Klasko // Barbara Klinkhammer // Alex LePape // Amy McCann // Joseph P. McCleery // Bruce Meyer // Magda Mostafa // Wendy Ross // Joel Sanders // Roseann Schaaf // Lonnie Smith // Gregory Tino // Sabra Townsend // Loukia Tsafoulia // Verona Carpenter Architects.

Organized by: • Severino Alfonso and Loukia Tsafoulia, Synesthetic Research and Design Lab, College of Architecture and the Built Environment, Thomas Jefferson University. • Dr. Wendy Ross, Center for Autism and Neurodiversity, Jefferson Health, Home of Sidney Kimmel Medical College. In an effort to embed and further investigate the critical questions of inclusivity, space and neurodiversity in the design pedagogies, the symposium is an integral component of the Fall20 senior Interior Design Studio 7 at the College of Architecture and the Built Environment, Thomas Jefferson University themed SENTIENT ARCHITECTURE: A Space-Body Continuum. The course is developed and taught by Severino Alfonso and Loukia Tsafoulia in collaboration with Dr. Wendy Ross.

The event is open to the public and free of charge.

Detailed event schedule to follow along with the Zoom link!