From Code to Craft | Virginia San Fratello

Monday March 30, 2026 , 5 to 6 p.m. Google Outlook iCal
Goldsmith Lecture Hall
Join us on March 30 for Virginia San Fratello's lecture, "From Code to Craft."
A small, modern shed with a succulent-covered exterior and double doors open to reveal a vibrant pink-lit interior where two people are seated inside, surrounded by plants and shelves with various items.

From Code to Craft
This presentation will focus on the creative architecture, interiors, and objects designed and built by Virginia San Fratello with her studios Emerging Objects and Rael San Fratello.
 


About Virginia San Fratello
Virginia San Fratello is an architect, interior designer, and educator. She is Chair of The Department of Design at San José State University in Silicon Valley. San Fratello is a National Design Award winner for Digital Design and a winner of the International Interior Design Educator of the Year Award. She is also a winner of the Metropolis Magazine Next Gen Design Competition. Her creative practice, Rael San Fratello, was named an Emerging Voice by The Architectural League of New York, and in 2021, they were awarded the Beazley Design of the Year. San Fratello is the co-author of Printing Architecture: Innovative Recipes for 3D Printing, a book that reexamines the building process from the bottom up and offers illuminating case studies for 3D printing with materials like chardonnay grape skins, salt, and sawdust. She is a partner in Emerging Objects, a creatively driven, 3D Printing MAKE-tank specializing in innovations in 3D printing architecture, and a co-founder of Forust. Her work is recognized by several institutions, including The National Building Museum, the Bellevue Museum, For Freedoms, and is included in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the CSMVS Museum in Mumbai, LACMA, and the Design Museum in London.

Three modern ceramic vases with matte, earthy bases and intricate, black open lattice necks, displayed against a plain white background. The vases vary in shape and height.

 

A textured, terracotta-colored ceramic jar with a lid sits on a wooden table. Next to it, a small pile of pinto beans is scattered. The background is plain and white.

 

Three people stand inside a large, dome-shaped structure made of colorful hexagonal and star patterns. Two take a selfie, while another looks around. The structure is outdoors on a bed of wood chips.

 

A woman with red hair and glasses operates a robotic arm using a tablet. The arm is interacting with a blue 3D-printed object on a table in a modern, technology-focused setting.