Stuckeman School to host award-winning designer San Fratello for Oct. 15 lecture

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Stuckeman School in the College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State is hosting Virginia San Fratello, architect, interior designer and educator, at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 15, as a part of the Department of Architecture’s fall 2025 lecture series. The lecture will be held in the Stuckeman Family Building Jury Space and livestreamed via Zoom.  

The lecture, titled “Drawn Out of The Lab and Into the Landscape,” will highlight the inventive architectural work and unique objects created by San Fratello through her studios Emerging Objects and Rael San Fratello.  

San Fratello chairs the Department of Design at San José State University and has earned national and international recognition including the National Design Award for Digital Design, the International Interior Design Educator of the Year Award and the Metropolis Magazine Next Gen Design Competition. Her creative practice, Rael San Fratello, also was named an Emerging Voice by the Architectural League of New York and received the 2021 Beazley Design of the Year honor.  

San Fratello also co-authored “Printing Architecture: Innovation 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,” San Fratello said.  

San Fratello’s practice reaches far beyond the United States, with exhibitions spanning Europe, Asia and Latin America. From contemporary art spaces in Belgium to design showcases in Beijing and Mexico, her projects and designs have been featured on many international stages.  

Her work also is showcased in permanent collections at world-renowned institutions, including the National Building Museum, Bellevue Museum and For Freedoms, with pieces held in permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) and the Cooper Hewitt in New York, San Francisco MOMA, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Museum in Mumbai, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and London’s Design Museum.  

San Fratello’s visit offers an opportunity to hear how emerging technologies are shaping the future of design and construction.