Spring 2026 Visiting Faculty
Luis E. Carranza's research and published work focus on modern architecture and art in Latin America, with an emphasis on Mexico. This work underscores how social, literary, philosophical, and theoretical ideas impact the conceptualization and materialization of architecture and design.
Much of his research on these themes can be found throughout his publications such as Architecture as Revolution: Episodes in the History of Modern Mexico, Modern Architecture in Latin America: Art, Technology, Utopia [with Fernando Lara], (Radical) Functionalism in Latin America, Radical Functionalism: A Social Architecture for Mexico, and Ephemeral Architectures and Falsified Cities: Utopian Visions for Latin America. He also serves as co-curator of the Barragán Gallery at the Vitra Design Museum.
Before coming to UTSOA as a visiting professor, Carranza demonstrated his deep commitment to academia through his role as Professor at Roger Williams University, an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and Visiting Professor at Yale University’s School of Architecture. He obtained his BArch from the University of Southern California and his PhD in Architectural History and Theory from Harvard University.
Carranza's instruction focuses on architectural history and theory, design and seminars on modern architecture and art in Latin America. In his spring 2026 Advanced Studio, his students will explore the role of avant-garde film and its potentials to generate new perceptions of the world. Carranza will present a lecture on April 1, free to the public.
Emiliano López Matas is co-founder and co-director of Emiliano Lopez Monica Rivera Arquitectos. He holds a Ph.D. in Architecture from the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, with a dissertation titled 6107 MSD. Peabody Terrace: Keys of a Design Process Led by Josep Lluís Sert.
López Matas is committed to academia, previously teaching at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili School of Architecture; at ESARQ, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya; as adjunct professor and co-director of the University of Calgary’s Barcelona Architecture Program; and as adjunct and associate professor at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Valles. At Washington University in St. Louis, he served as visiting professor and later senior lecturer of architecture, teaching the graduate Core Housing Studio for a decade and coordinating the course for seven years.
He earned a Master of Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (Real Colegio Complutense de Madrid Scholarship), a Master of History with a focus on Art, City, and Architecture from UPC, ETSA Barcelona, and a degree in Architecture from the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Valles.
In his spring 2026 Advanced Studio, his students will focus on analyzing and understanding the multiple layers that shape the contemporary European city, with the goal of revealing the complexity of its urban context and identifying opportunities to intervene and improve existing conditions. López Matas will present a lecture on April 6, free to the public.
Virginia San Fratello is an architect, interior designer, and educator. 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. She is Chair of The Department of Design at San José State University in Silicon Valley.
This spring, San Fratello is leading an advanced studio, "Waste to Wonder." Her students will work with waste materials from the local waste stream and manipulate these materials using techniques such as cutting, casting, fastening and adhering, 3D printing, painting, laminating, sewing, and weaving to transform their waste materials into novel and new material composites and assemblies. San Fratello will present a lecture on March 30, free to the public.
Henry (Hank) Webber is the founder and Managing Principal of Urban Impact Advisors, a national consulting firm that works in higher education, innovation districts and community and economic development. He is a nationally recognized higher education and community and economic development leader. For the past 35 years, he has made major contributions to Chicago and St Louis and helped lead the University of Chicago and Washington University in St Louis, two of America’s largest and finest research universities.
From 2008 until the end of 2021, Webber served as Executive Vice Chancellor at Washington University in St. Louis. He was the University’s Chief Administrative Officer through 2020, overseeing a wide variety of administrative and external affairs functions including on and off campus University real estate and facilities, human resources, University operations, public affairs, information technology and security with combined operating and capital budgets of over $500M annually and over 1600 University and contracted staff. In 2020 he became Washington University’s Executive Vice Chancellor for Civic Affairs and Strategic Planning, and led a university-wide effort to strengthen the University as a teaching, research and patient care leader while making the St Louis region stronger and more equitable. He earned Master's degree in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from Brown University.
This spring, Webber joins our Community and Regional Planning program to teach Sustainable Cities, where students will learn how to make cities successful, in terms of generating new economic activity and in offering economic opportunity to all.