RAEL SAN FRATELLO

TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2022

ABOUT THE DESIGNERS

Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello create on the leading edge of experimental architecture and design, exploring both sociopolitical and material frontiers. Their projects engage the physical border of the United States and Mexico, as well as the exciting new possibilities of 3D printing. Their work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the Design Museum London, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER TALK

In their Designer Talk, they discuss projects that grew out of a wider body of research around the development of future materials for 3D printing including locally-sourced mud, wine grape skins, and sawdust, and recent projects such as the Casa Covida, a three-roomed, adobe, 3D printed bungalow built in Colorado’s San Luis Valley on Rael’s ancestral land. Employing design as a tool for protest, they also talk about their moving projects that criticize the harmful divisions at the US-Mexico border with poignant displays of unity, collaboration, and play.

Recommendation List

VASD Program guests provide a recommendation list that gives insight into their work, practice, and research.

Ronald Rael recommends:

  • Architecture without Architects by Bernard Rudofsky (book)

  • Now I lay me Down to Eat by Bernard Rudofsky (book)

  • Are Clothes Modern? by Bernard Rudofsky (book)

  • The Unfashionable Human Body by Bernard Rudofsky (book)

And Virginia San Fratello recommends:

  • Printing Architecture: Innovative Recipes for 3D Printing by Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello

  • Printing Things by Dries Verbruggen and Claire Werner

  • The 3D Printing Handbook by Ben Redwood

  • Digital Fabrications: Architectural and Material Techniques by Lisa Iwamoto

  • Borderwall as Architecture by Ronald Rael

  • Why Walls Won’t Work by Michael Dear

Rael San Fratello. Casa Covida. Photography by Elliot Ross.

PRIVATE EVENTS FOR THE RMCAD COMMUNITY

Next-Day Q+A

Wednesday, March 9, 2022
Students and faculty met with the visiting designers to ask questions about their work and career, and get professional advice.

Students and faculty gather for an intimate conversation with Ronald and Virginia.

CERAMIC 3D PRINTING WORKSHOP WITH RAEL SAN FRATELLO
Wednesday, March 9, 2022
RMCAD students had access to an exclusive workshop with award-winning visiting designers Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello. This opportunity was open to students looking to engage with the visiting designers in a hands-on exploration into clay and 3D printing, and the limitlessness of those materials and methods. Students learned how to utilize Ronald and Virginia’s software, Potterware, and designed and 3D printed their own, customized, ceramic vessel. 

Ronald teaching students how to design their 3d ceramic vessels.

Virginia provides students with feedback on their designs.

Students each got to design and 3d print a custom ceramic vessel.