Lectures
Myriam Bellazoug Memorial Lecture
Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello
Unbounded
Professor Ronald Rael holds the Eva Li Memorial Chair in Architecture and a joint appointment in the Department of Architecture, in the College of Environmental Design, and the Department of Art Practice at the University of California, Berkeley. He is both a Bakar and Hellman Fellow, Director the Masters of Architecture program, and founded the printFARM Laboratory (print Facility for Architecture, Research and Materials). His research interests connect indigenous and traditional material practices to contemporary technologies and issues and he is a design activist, author, and thought leader within the topics of additive manufacturing, borderwall studies, and earthen architecture. In 2014 his creative practice, Rael San Fratello (with architect Virginia San Fratello), was named an Emerging Voice by The Architectural League of New York. In 2016 Rael San Fratello was also awarded the Digital Practice Award of Excellence by the The Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA).
Virginia San Fratello is an architect, artist, and educator. She is a partner in the award winning design studio, Rael San Fratello, and is a co-founder of the start up company Emerging Objects. Emerging Objects is an independent, creatively driven, 3D Printing MAKE-tank specializing in innovations in 3D printing architecture, building components, environments and products. San Fratello recently won the International Interior Design Educator of the Year Award and in 2014. At SJSU, San Fratello teaches design studio, design and fabrication seminars and materials and methods seminars. She believes design for the 21st century absolutely must incorporate sustainable methods and take advantage of local and ecological material resources. In an era of throw away consumerism and over consumption, excessive energy use, too much waste, and toxic materials, designers have a responsibility to the public and the planet, to change our mindset about what our interiors are made of, how they function and to inform the manufacturing processes used to fabricate the interior. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has supported her research with several multi year grants while at SJSU.
Practice