Mud Frontier: Film Screening & Talkback with Rael San Fratello

Join us for a screening of Mud Frontier: Architecture at the Borderlands, a documentary exploring Rael San Fratello’s innovative fusion of 3D-printing technology and traditional adobe architecture. Following the screening, Andrew Shaken, U.C. Berkeley Professor of Architectural History and American Studies, will moderate a talkback with featured design duo Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello.

Filmed over two years, Mud Frontier: Architecture at the Borderlands (Cooper Hewitt, 2022. 63 min), follows artist-architects Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello, as they return to Rael’s ancestral homeland in Colorado’s remote San Luis Valley to experiment with 3D-printed earthen architecture. Marrying recent technologies with building methods dating back to time immemorial, the architects tap into Indigenous traditions while reflecting on the potential for new, sustainable approaches to construction and fabrication.