Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to Present Mid-Career Retrospective of Design Studio Rael San Fratello

“Prototypes and Provocations” is the most comprehensive presentation to date of the award-winning Oakland-based architecture and design studio

Wednesday, August 26, 2027 (San Francisco, CA) – What if architecture could change the world? For over twenty years, Rael San Fratello, an architecture and design studio based in Oakland, has developed a practice that seeks to answer that very question. Rael San Fratello: Prototypes and Provocations, opening at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) September 25, is a mid-career survey that traces the duo’s evolution from their early experiments merging clothing and construction, to a series of bold projects centered on the U.S.-Mexico border, to their trailblazing work with 3D printed objects and architecture. Curated by René Morales, the exhibition is the most comprehensive presentation of their work to date, and is on view at YBCA through January 31, 2027.

“Protoypes and Provocations brings to light Rael San Fratello’s commitment to creating a more just and sustainable world through their progressive approach to architecture and design,” said Dorothy Dávila, Chief of Curatorial Initiatives at YBCA. “Creating a platform to show innovative work that addresses core questions that we face today is central to YBCA’s mission. We are eager for visitors to engage with Rael San Fratello’s deeply thoughtful and forward-thinking practice.”

Founded by Virginia San Fratello and Ronald Rael in 2002, Rael San Fratello insists that architecture is not merely a backdrop for social life, but a medium through which power is both articulated and contested. The works included in the exhibition offer an overview of the projects and issues that have compelled them over the past two decades, highlighting the ways they have imagined more equitable, adaptive, and humane ways of inhabiting the world.

“Rael San Fratello’s work attests to the power of radical imagination grounded in humanistic values and an ethos of play and constant experimentation,” said guest curator René Morales. “Blurring the boundaries between architecture and social practice, tradition and technology, poetics and activism, the studio envisions a better world at the same time that it seeks to develop the tools with which we may one day be able to construct for ourselves.”

One of the centerpieces of the exhibition is a new, large-scale commission titled Sanctuary which visitors will be able to explore inside and out. 3D printed entirely onsite using only soil, straw, and water, the cylindrical structure offers a quiet space for reflection, while serving as a demonstration of the ecologically-sound building techniques that Rael San Fratello have developed. The walls of Sanctuary are perforated with hundreds of glass solar rods salvaged following the 2011 collapse of the Bay-area company Solyndra, a flashpoint in debates over federally funded sustainability efforts. 

“Sanctuary is made from humankind’s oldest building material, constructed using emerging robotic technologies,” shared Virginia and Ronald. “Raw earth has sheltered people for ten thousand years, and the Solyndra rods embedded in its walls point to the complexity of combining contemporary and traditional materials. Bringing them together creates a space to contemplate what endures, what gets discarded, and what deserves a second chance.”

In addition, the exhibition will feature Rael San Fratello’s acclaimed 2019 project Teeter-Totter Wall, a set of bright pink seesaws the studio installed temporarily along the infamous U.S.-Mexico border wall. The work invited a playful, transnational exchange, and garnered widespread attention as a powerful symbol of the possibility for connection across a deeply contested divide. Alongside this work, a massive table will display a selection of 3D printed objects made from a wide array of materials that are sustainable, upcycled, recycled, and locally available, or rescued from the waste stream (including salt, chardonnay grape skins, salt, coffee grounds, clay, sawdust, and ash collected in the aftermath of California wildfires).

Collectively, the works on view speak to Rael San Fratello’s ongoing work to develop creative solutions to some of our most challenging social and political issues, while also pioneering ways to incorporate sustainable and often-times unexpected materials into their work. Prototypes and Provocations introduces visitors to a playful, restless, and provocative approach to architecture and design.

About Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is San Francisco’s home for bold, daring, and breathtaking art. Across contemporary art, performance, dance, film, and public programs, we present essential artistic voices from across the world, while celebrating the vibrancy of Bay Area culture. Embodying the independent and unconventional spirit of our city, YBCA has been the creative heartbeat of San Francisco for more than thirty years. For more information, visit ybca.org.

YBCA is open Thursday through Sunday 11:00am to 5:00pm, and on Wednesdays from 11:00am to 8:00pm. 

General admission is $10, and $5 for students and seniors. Admission is free every Wednesday. For tickets and information, visit ybca.org.

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For media inquiries:

Abby Margulies | (614) 827-5810 | [email protected]