Mud y Robots | Lecture by Ronald Rael

Nov. 15, 2024
Who
Ron Rael
What
CAPLA Lecture Series Event
When
November 14, 2024
Image
Ronald Rael

Join us for an eye-opening lecture by Ronald Rael, as he dives into his groundbreaking initiative, "Mud y Robots." This innovative project merges the ancient art of earthen building with the latest in additive manufacturing technology to create sustainable housing solutions with the potential to transform our planet. Rael, a renowned architect and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, is widely recognized for his work at the intersection of design and social justice. As a border activist, technologist, and traditional builder with deep roots as a multi-generational rancher, he brings a unique perspective to pioneering 3D printing materials. His expertise promises to challenge conventional ideas and inspire new paths forward in architecture and environmental conservation.


Watch the Lecture


About the Speaker 

Image
Jones Studio Grand Challenges Lecture

Ronald Rael (b. 1971, Conejos County, Colorado) is a trained architect, professor, activist, design technologist, multi-generational rancher and traditional builder. He is the Chair of the Department of Art Practice and Eval Li Memorial Chair in Architecture at the University of California Berkeley. His work blurs the borders between architecture, art, technology, land-based practices and social justice. 

He writes books, forms startup companies, advocates for human rights at the U.S.–Mexico border, creates software, invents novel materials and new forms of construction, and designs buildings as an applied research enterprise.

His work often combines indigenous and traditional materials and processes with contemporary technologies to speak to the contrasts, contradictions, and complexities of othered subjects, ranging from people to materials, and places, in contemporary society. 

He is the author of “Borderwall as Architecture: A Manifesto for the U.S.-Mexico Boundary” (University of California Press 2017), an illustrated biography and protest of the wall dividing the U.S. from Mexico (featured in a TED talk by Rael), His studio, Rael San Fratello, installed the award-winning “Teetertotter Wall,” three pink see-saws on the US-Mexico border in 2020.

His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, The London Design Museum, LACMA, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Renwick Smithsonian American Art Museum.

 

Image
Ronald Rael 3D Printed Bloom

 

Image
Ronald Rael Skylos

 

Image
Ronald Rael Borderwall

  

Subscribe to The Studio

Sign up for CAPLA's monthly e-newsletter to get the latest news and events, insights from faculty and leadership, profiles of students and alumni and more.

Subscribe Now

Latest CAPLA News, Projects and Profiles

Image
Old Main

CAPLA Students Lead Sustainability Research

CAPLA Master of Landscape Architecture students Ashley Danforth and Xavier Fernandez are leading a $45,000 grant-funded project to advance sustainable stormwater solutions on campus. Through research, collaboration, and community outreach, their work will create a campus-wide database of green stormwater infrastructure to help address challenges like drought and extreme heat.

Image
Ladd Keith

Ladd Keith appointed to Governor Hobbs' Workplace Heat Safety Task Force

Ladd Keith, director of the University of Arizona’s Heat Resilience Initiative and a leading national expert on heat planning, has been appointed to Governor Katie Hobbs’ new Workplace Heat Safety Task Force. In this role, he will help develop science-based, equitable guidelines to protect Arizona’s workers from the growing risks of extreme heat.