2025

Call for Papers: 31 May 2025

AREA Special Issue: Color in Architecture, Design, and Urbanism

Research Department, School of Architecture, Design and Urbanism, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina

All disciplines involved in the creation and transformation of the habitable environment engage in some way with light and color. The implications of using light, colors, and materials in contemporary design activity, particularly in this era of advanced technological developments, deserve to be explored within the academic field in relation to techniques, design practices, architecture, and urban space. We ask for submissions of original articles and provide below a non-exclusive list of potential topics:

• a) Psychological aspects and influences of light and color stimuli in the habitat.
• b) Meanings and preferences of color in spaces, objects, and designed media.
• c) Historical evolution of concepts and theories of color and light in relation to the human environment.
• d) Color systems and codes used in architecture and design.
• e) History, archaeology, and practices of chromatic restoration in urban centers.
• f) Meanings of chromatic materials in different design disciplines.
• g) Methods, techniques, and procedures for using color in design activities.

Deadline: 31 May 2025

Language: The main language of the journal is Spanish, although original articles in Portuguese and English are also accepted. 

Length of articles: maximum 8,000 words, minimum 4,000 words.

Guest Editors

• Dr José Luis Caivano, University of Buenos Aires, Faculty of Architecture, Design, and Urbanis
• MSc Verena M. Schindler, International Colour Association (AIC), Study Group on Environmental Colour Design
• Dr Juan Serra, Technical School of Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Valencia

Submission website: https://area.fadu.uba.ar/en/call/

The digital edition is under OJS (Open Journal Systems) and is open access:
https://area.fadu.uba.ar/ediciones/

Ongoing Project
Paper Submission Deadline: 31 July 2025 

CRA Special Collection: Environmental Color Design Research

Please do not forget to select the option special collection “environmental colour” and mention this in your letter to the editor.

Editors of Special Collection on Environmental Color Design Research:  Verena M. Schindler, José Luis Caivano, Juan Serra

The aim of this Special Collection is to inquire into the role of color in indoor and outdoor built, natural, and sociocultural environments, and the effects of color on human behavior, cognition and emotion. The Editors welcome scholarly articles from all disciplines including, but not limited, to color design for cities, villages, urban spaces, architecture, interiors, art, urbanized nature, preservation, restoration, history, archival research, cultural landscapes, theory, methodology, empirical research, case studies, and research on color harmony, color atmosphere, and semiotics. The environmental color design field is changing rapidly in terms of digitalization, newly emerging technologies, lighting, new materials, urban density, people’s taste, trends, and well-being. In sum, the scope of this Special Collection aims to discuss the manifold role of color in environmental design research as well as its predictable effects and how the field will respond to future developments.

submission open

You can submit your paper via the journal's main page - just choose "Environmental Color Design Research" from the drop-down in the final submission step. Authors are encouraged to submit original Research Articles, Applied Theory Articles, and Reviews.

Deadline: 31 July 2025

website

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/15206378/homepage/environmental-color

New papers published in 2024

• Katia Gasparini (2024) Urban Color Plan: The case study of the Ledro Valley (Italy)
  • Color Res Appl. 2024; 49(6): 618-634. doi:10.1002/col.22947
• Esra Küçükkılıç Özcan, Kasım Çelik (2024): Environmental color analysis and facade color design in a street rehabilitation: Adana, Kayalıbağ
  • Color Res Appl. 2024; 49(5): 433-448. doi:10.1002/col.22926
• Francesca Valan, Pietro Paglierani (2024): Connecting the new to the past: The Color-Material-Finish design approach applied to the Fortezza da Basso
  • Color Res Appl.  2024; 49(4): 384-400. doi:10.1002/col.22923

Done

International Online Symposium
Spatialities and Color

Thursday, 27 March 2025, 9:00 am - 3:00 pm CET

Spatialities and Color

On the occasion of the International Color Day (ICD), the section "Spatialities and Color" of the Encyclopédie Numérique des Couleurs, an open access online color encyclopedia, is hosting its first symposium. 

While color has been extensively studied (Roque, 1997; Caivano, 2006; Doherty, 2010; Schindler, 2017; Serra, 2019; Environmental Color, 2023; Engler, 2023), space remains a polysemous concept whose definition is difficult to grasp insofar as it acquires all its richness by being determined through the nature of the relationships that humans establish with it. Shaped by social relations, a space conveys lived experiences (Thibaud, 2015). As such, the term “space” is no longer used, but rather “spatiality”. By spatiality, the spatial dimension of social actions is referred to. This notion questions the way in which a user relates to space on a daily basis (Lévy and Lussault, 2013). Widely used in the current vocabulary of geography, spatiality focuses on how individuals interact with and shape the spaces around them (Lussault, 2007).

"Spatialities and Color" investigates color through the prism of spatialities, focusing on three "colored" human universes that are at once assertive, integrative and plural, with reference to Sloterdijk’s spherology. (Sloterdijk, 2011, 2014, 2016). Sloterdijkian spherology describes an onto-spatiality that manifests itself in three types of experienced or lived spaces: (a) macrospheres as a global space defined by a terrestrial integration into an inhabited space; (b) microspheres as a human space characterized by a dynamic structure of cohesion devoid of true spatial dimensions; and (c) atmospheres that define a plural space, a kind of reticular structure of phenomena and ambiences. The boundaries between these universes interweave, intersect or dissolve as spatial processes unfold and practices take hold.

We therefore propose a holarchical vision of spatialities at the crossroads of material spaces (materialities: architectural, urban, territorial, landscaped, geographical, etc.), "quasi-spaces" (immaterialities: poetic, digital, artistic, psychological, semiotic, etc.) and ambient spaces (phenomena: luminous, sonic, olfactory, aerodynamic, thermal, etc.) in order to examine a situated perception of color. There exists thus a threefold relationship between human experience, color, and the surrounding space, which can be defined as a resonance, a mode of existence in the world, and a specific type of engagement with it, where subject and world interact and shape each other (Rosa, 2018; see also Griffero, 2014; Böhme, 2017).

This symposium proposes a series of presentations exploring the many dimensions of color intrinsically related to different concepts of spatiality/space, with the aim of producing an in-depth understanding of "Spatialities and Color". 

Contributions will highlight the nature of the relationship between the space under consideration and the color being studied. They may also address the evolution of color and space over time.

Topics

Welcome are scholarly contributions from all disciplines including, but not limited to:

• Materialities – Physical, concrete, and tangible spaces that surround us and constitute the basis of research in Design Sciences: Architecture, Urbanism, Landscaping, Environment, Territories, Art, Design, Creation, Lighting Design, Scenography, Space Science, Practice.

• Immaterialities – Abstract and intangible spaces of ideas, concepts, information, and relationships in the Humanities and Social Sciences: Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Culture, Aesthetics, Semiotics, Poetics, History, Epochs, Contexts, Time, Performance, Virtual Reality, Transparency, AI, Mobility, Theory.

• Ambient Spaces – Sensory spaces at the crossroads of the perceptible and physical worlds: Atmospheres, Phenomenology, Senses, Sensations, Synesthesia, Multisensoriality, Perception, Emotion, Memory, Consciousness, Experience, Communication.

Abstract Submission

All abstract submissions must be in English and sent via email in a single Word document entitled “Last Name 2025 SC Symposium” to ecd.studygroup@yahoo.com no later than 14 March 2025 and include the following items: 
1) an abstract (500 words) 
2) a short biography 
3) your full name and pronouns, email address, and professional affiliation. Please use “2025 SC Symposium” in the subject line of the email.

Participation in this interdisciplinary international online symposium is free. No organizational registration is required.

Presentations should be given in English and not exceed 15 minutes.

The 2025 SC Symposium will be held online on 27 March 2025.

Important Dates

-          7 February 2025: Call for Abstracts  
-          14 March 2025: Abstract Submission Deadline   
-          20 March 2025: Notification of Acceptance  
-          27 March 2025: International Online Symposium "Spatialities and Color"

Organizers 

Faten Hussein, University of Carthage, National School of Architecture and Urbanism, Tunis (Tunisia) 

Juan Serra, Valencia Polytechnic University, School of Architecture, Valencia (Spain) 

Verena M. Schindler, International Colour Association (AIC) Study Group on Environmental Colour Design, Zollikon (Switzerland)  

Imène Slama, University of Sousse, Higher Institute of Fine Arts of Sousse, Sousse (Tunisia)

Scientific Committee

José Luis CAIVANO, University of Buenos Aires, Faculty of Architecture, Research Program on Color and Visual Semiotics, Buenos Aires (Argentina)

Gareth DOHERTY, Harvard University, Critical Landscapes Design Lab, Cambridge MA (United States of America)

Faten HUSSEIN, University of Carthage, National School of Architecture and Urbanism, Heritage, Architecture and Ambiances Research Lab, Tunis (Tunisia)

Georges ROQUE, School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Center for Research on Art and Language, Paris (France)

Verena M. SCHINDLER, International Colour Association (AIC) Study Group on Environmental Colour Design, Zollikon (Switzerland)

Juan SERRA, Valencia Polytechnic University, Color Research Group in Architecture of the Heritage Restoration University Research Institute, Valencia (Spain)

Daniel SIRET, Nantes School of Architecture, Urban Architecture Nantes Research Center, Nantes (France) 

Editorial Committee

Imène SLAMA, University of Sousse, Higher Institute of Fine Arts of Sousse, Sousse (Tunisia)

Ichraf AROUA, University of Carthage, National School of Architecture and Urbanism, Tunis (Tunisia)

Wiem ALIMI, University of Carthage, National School of Architecture and Urbanism, Tunis (Tunisia)

Nadia BOUZGARROU, University of Carthage, National School of Architecture and Urbanism, Tunis (Tunisia)

References

Böhme, Gernot (2017) The Aesthetics of Atmospheres. New York, NY: Routledge.

Caivano, José Luis (2006) Research on color in architecture and environmental design: Brief history, current developments, and possible future. Color Research and Application 31(4): 350-363. https://doi.org/10.1002/col.20224

Doherty, Gareth, Ed. (2010) New Geographies 03: Urbanisms of Color. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Encyclopédie Numérique des Couleurs, https://encyclopedienumeriquedescouleurs.com/ 

Engler, Mira. (2023) Landscape Design in Color: History, Theory, and Practice 1750 to Today. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

Environmental Color Design Research (2023) Color Research and Application, Special Collection. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1002/(ISSN)1520-6378.environmental-color 

Griffero, Tonino (2014) Atmospheres: Aesthetics of Emotional Spaces. Farnham, UK: Ashgate.

Lévy, Jacques and Lussault, Michel (2013) Dictionnaire de la géographie et de l'espace des sociétés. Paris: Belin Éditeur.

Lussault, Michel (2007) L'Homme spatial: La construction sociale de l'espace humain. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.

Roque, Georges (1997) Art et science de la couleur: Chevreul et les peintres, de Delacroix à l’abstraction. Nîmes: Éditions Jacqueline Chambon.

Rosa, Hartmut (2021) Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World. Cambridge, UK: Polity.

Schindler, Verena M. (2017) JAIC Special Issue on Colour and Light. Journal of the International Colour Association 17, i-iv. https://aic-color.org/journal-issues 

Serra, Juan (2019) Color for Architects. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press.

Sloterdijk, Peter (2011) Bubbles: Spheres I - Microspherology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Sloterdijk, Peter (2014) Globes: Spheres II - Macrospherology. Los Angeles, CA: Semiotext(e).

Sloterdijk, Peter (2016) Foams: Spheres III - Plural Spherology. Los Angeles, CA: Semiotext(e).

Thibaud, Jean-Paul (2015) En quête d’ambiances: Éprouver la ville en passant. Genève: Éditions MētisPresses.

Symposium Website

http://www.aicecd.org/index.php?article_id=5&clang=2

Contact

ecd.studygroup@yahoo.com