The Colour Literacy Forum (CLF) is a virtual platform featuring presentations and interactive conversations focused on updating and expanding 21st century colour education at the university level. The goal of this global collaboration is to develop a 21st century STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) model that positions colour as a meta-discipline and aligns colour education with current needs in the culture, providing state-of-the-art resources, and offering dynamic networking opportunities for all stakeholders.
Registration will be done directly in Zoom.
Please use this link to register for CLF #14:
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The 2025 Series: Facts and Myths about Colour
CLF #14: Colour Matters: How Colour Shapes Experience beyond Theory
Talk 1: The Affective Meanings Carried by Colour
Speaker: Dr. Domicele Jonauskaite
For the past decade, Domicele has devoted her work to exploring how people connect colours with emotions — those intuitive, almost automatic associations we all recognise from familiar expressions such as “seeing red” or “feeling blue.” Over the years, her research has expanded steadily, involving more than 15,000 participants across more than 70 countries, and including individuals from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. This encompasses not only different age groups but also people with various forms of visual impairment, such as colour blindness, total blindness, and achromatopsia. In this talk, Domicele will present the most recent scientific findings on the affective meanings that colours carry, drawing on this extensive and diverse body of data. She will delve into the evidence for universal patterns that seem to emerge across cultures, as well as the notable individual differences that shape how each person perceives and interprets colour. Finally, she will offer thoughtful suggestions on where these emotional connotations might originate, inviting us to reflect on why colours can resonate with us so powerfully.
Dr. Domicele Jonauskaite is an experimental psychologist, studying meanings, preferences, and effects of colour across cultures and individuals. Her research spans 70+ countries and examines diverse populations, such as children, elderly, colour-blind, and totally blind. Dr. Jonauskaite is currently a Senior Lecturer and an Ambizione Fellow at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. She has authored over 40 scientific publications and her contribution to science has been recognized with several prestigious awards. Her research positions have been supported with four personal career fellowships from the Swiss National Science Foundation. She is also a co- founder of the Colour Experience (together with Prof. Christine Mohr) designed to disseminate scientifically validated empirical research on psychological effects of colour.
Talk 2: The Effects of Urban Colour Planning on Mood and Perception
Speaker: Verena M. Schindler
Verena will explore how colour can be used in urban planning to address today’s challenges. What is an effective colour planning approach? One challenge is maintaining a region’s historical colour identity while embracing new developments. She will also examine whether colour regulations impact cultural identity preservation. This question can lead to further inquiries, such as how specific colour palettes affect mood and perception in different urban contexts to promote public well-being. Colour plans developed with local residents ensure their appreciation rather than being imposed on them. However, there is a risk of losing a region’s original character due to pressure from various sources, such as tourism, economic growth and technology. Today, virtual reality applications facilitate the interactive exploration of urban colour variations. Instead of conducting field research, colours are extracted from photographs. While technology can provide a more detailed representation than the human eye and handcrafted colour charts can, the colors resulting from this new analytical methodology are biased and would alter the appearance of buildings and urban spaces completely.
Verena M. Schindler is an Art and Architectural Historian, Colour Researcher, Chair of the Study Group on Environmental Colour Design of the International Colour Association, and a member of Pro Colore – Swiss Colour Association. Affiliated with Atelier Cler Études Chromatiques in Paris for many years, she has worked at the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta), and the Department of Architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, and also as an art teacher. She has researched, published and edited extensively in colour in art, architecture, urban planning and design. She is a member of several editorial boards and an Academic Editor of Color Research and Application.
Talk 3: Colour and Interior Design for Birth Centers: Be careful When Colours Surround You
Speakers: Juan Serra and Ignacio Cabodevilla
Juan will present the development of a research project titled Naixem, aimed at setting design recommendations for birth centers (BC) to support normal childbirth, offering an alternative to hospital deliveries often perceived as overly technical for uncomplicated pregnancies. The design focuses on promoting the well-being of both mother and newborn, allowing labour, delivery, and recovery to unfold naturally within a single birth room. Interiors must balance health and safety requirements with mothers’ subjective perceptions, fostering a humanized environment. The research team applied a human-centered design methodology across three scales: building, interior spaces—particularly the birth and postpartum rooms—and furnishings. Designs were iteratively evaluated by midwives, mothers, and healthcare-design architects through five phases: observation, co-creation, proof of concept, initial, and final designs. Various architectural expression methods—drawings, scale models, immersive virtual models, and full-scale prototypes—facilitated participation by users unfamiliar with technical representation. Results highlighted contradictions between phases, especially in colour evaluation, suggesting the need to adapt expression methods to each stage and encourage iterative testing for consistent results.
Juan Serra is PhD architect, full-time Professor in the School of Architecture (ETSA) of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) in Spain, and Sub-Dean of Research at ETSA. He is co-chair of the Study Group on Environmental Color Design of the International Color Association (AIC), and member of the Color Research Group in Architecture of the Heritage Restoration Institute (IRP-UPV). Editor in Chief of VLC Architecture: Research Journal (Scopus, Q2), and member of the editorial board of Color Research and Application (Wiley). He has been a Fulbright Scholar at the Munsell Color Science Laboratory (RIT 2023) and visiting researcher in Oxford, Milan, Paris, Lisbon and Lima. He is a regular contributor to the AIC Color Congresses, and the Architectural Graphic Expression International Congresses (EGA). He has been researcher in competitive national and international projects about color restoration, color integration of buildings, color perception in interior architecture, color for wellbeing and performance, and neuroarchitecture. He has published numerous papers in indexed research journals (Scopus H-Index= 11) and is author of the book “Color for Architects” (NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2019).
Ignacio Cabodevilla is a PhD Architect from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, with European distinction and Extraordinary Prize for PhD Thesis. Former Associate Lecturer at the University of Zaragoza (2013-2021), and currently Senior Lecturer in the Department of Architectural Graphic Expression at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). Member of the UPV Institute of Heritage Restoration and the Architectural Color Research Group. His main research lines include color in architecture, both modern and historical, and the heritage architecture of the Crown of Aragon, from constructive, compositional, and stylistic perspectives. Recipient of research grants from the Ibercaja-CAI Foundation and the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. He has participated in numerous research projects funded by public entities and in contracts with administrations and private companies focused on the color of architecture, both heritage and newly built
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