Emerging Objects, San Francisco, USA
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, her creative practice, Rael San Fratello (with Ronald Rael), was named an Emerging Voice by The Architectural League of New Yorkâone of the most coveted awards in North American architecture.
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.
San Fratello earned her Master of Architecture degree at Columbia University in the City of New York. Previous academic appointments include positions at the Southern California Institute for Architecture (SCI_arc), Clemson University and the University of California Berkeley. Her work has been published widely, including in Interior Design Magazine, The New York Times, Wired, MARK, Domus, Metropolis Magazine and PRAXIS and is recognized by several institutions including The Museum of Modern Art and The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.