prof. Jader Tolja

research director

Jader Tolja, M.D. and psychotherapist, is currently research director of the Body Conscious Design Lab at the Architecture Department of the Bratislava Polytechnic University. He has been researching the mutual relationship among body, mind and design (in all its forms), using an experiential approach to anatomy, as an investigative tool and as a teaching method, with a particular interest in the role played by the neuro-connective tissue of the body. From the mid-1980s (Pratt Institute for Arts and Design, NY) to 2014 (Sichuan University, Chengdu), he has been working mainly as lecturer at international universities and private institutes. In Milan, where he has lived for many years, he has been teaching Body Conscious Design at the Arte & Messaggio school (Landscape Design and Graphic Design courses), at the Domus Academy, the most known italian design academy, (Industrial Design, Automotive Design and Interior Design Masters, where he taught the first BCD course held in Europe), and he has been professor at the faculty of Architecture of the Politecnico di Milano (Urban Design Lab). He is author and co-author of different books on the relationship among body, mind and space, including Il cervello destro e i giardini Zen (about the relationship between the right brain and the zen gardens, Milan, 1983), Habitat (Trieste, 1995), Abitare (about the spaces we live, Florence, 1997), Still in Motion (Bologna, 2000), Pensare col corpo (about body thinking: 2 chapters on space, Milan, 2000), Paesaggi terapeutici (about therapeutic gardens, Florence, 2007), Corpo e giardino (about the effect of the gardens on the body and the mind, Milan, 2012), Dal pensiero al progetto del verde (about green design projects, Milan, 2015), Essere corpo (about embodiment, containing architecture and design sections, Milan, 2016) and Corpo Moda Mente (about Body Conscious Design in fashion, Vicenza, 2021).