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  • Lecture Series: Ronald Rael

Lecture Series: Ronald Rael

Aerial photo looking down on the U.S.-Mexico border wall as it runs vertically in the frame with people standing on either side of the wall and some people sitting on three vertical seesaws connected through the wall
photo courtesy of https://www.rael-sanfratello.com

“Notes from the Borderlands” presented by Ronald Rael, Chair of the Department of Art Practice and Eva Li Memorial Chair in Architecture at the University of California Berkeley College of Environmental Design. Sponsored by the William Kay & Nancy Proctor Turner Fund.

In-Person Lecture | Feb. 13, 5:15pm - 7pm CT

The lecture will take place in Kendall Cram Lecture Hall in Tulane University's Lavin-Bernick Center. This lecture is open to the public. CES credits are available, thanks to support from AIA New Orleans.

Ronald Rael's talk will discuss how the borderlands are a productive terrain for creativity, activism and innovation. He will discuss how the borderlands, a world of coming together, is a place of trauma, joy, hybridity, and how these themes contribute to the making of work that engages place, communities, and can begin to reconcile with the trauma of past and recent history. The lecture will demonstrate how the work of his creative practices crosses the border between the disciplines of art and architecture through additive manufacturing and social practice.

Ronald's research interests connect indigenous and traditional material practices to contemporary technologies and issues and he is considered to be a design activist, author, and thought leader within the topics of additive manufacturing, borderwall studies, and earthen architecture. The London Design Museum awarded his creative practice, Rael San Fratello, (with architect Virginia San Fratello), the Beazley Award in 2021 for the design of the year, one of the most prestigious awards in design internationally. In 2014 his practice was named an Emerging Voice by The Architectural League of New York—one of the most coveted awards in North American architecture. 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).

Questions about this event? Contact Sean Huff, Executive Administrative Assistant, at shuff1@tulane.edu.