Virginia San Fratello and Ronald Rael

Virginia San Fratello of the Department of Design at San Jose State University and Ronald Rael of the Department of Architecture at UC Berkeley are 2020 grant recipients of The Art + Technology Lab at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

Professors Fratello and Rael will reexamine Indigenous mud-based building materials through 21st-century robotics, to contemplate the past and future of Pueblo de Los Ángeles, historical home to the Chumash and Tongva, Spain, Mexico, and now the United States. San Fratello and Rael will create proto-architectures that connect building traditions at opposing ends of a technological spectrum. San Fratello and Rael’s project is called MUD Frontiers / Zoquetes Fronterizos.

The grant awards include monetary and in-kind support for projects that engage emerging technologies. LACMA issued the 2020 Request for Proposals in December 2019, and the museum received over 600 submissions. The grant recipients selected for 2020 will work with 3D printing and reconstituted materials, robotics and crowdsourcing, Indigenous navigation techniques, and natural building practices and additive manufacturing.

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