Rael San Fratello’s ideas in full view

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is showing the most comprehensive exhibition so far on Rael San Fratello, the Oakland studio founded by Virginia San Fratello and Ronald Rael. The survey, Prototypes and Provocations, brings together structures, objects, models and film, and gives a clear sense of a practice that moves between architecture, material research and social action.

The piece you would probably head for first is Sanctuary, a cylindrical structure 3D-printed on site from soil, straw and water. You can walk around it and step inside, beneath a mirrored inflatable orb. Its earthen walls are set with glass solar rods salvaged from Solyndra, the Bay Area solar-panel maker that collapsed in 2011. Another new work, The Workshop, was commissioned by the arts centre and combines a roof of recycled broom heads from an exhibition in Seoul with biodegradable thermoplastic and small planter boxes.

Elsewhere, display tables hold 3D-printed objects made from coffee grounds, Chardonnay grape skins and ash gathered after California wildfires. Teeter-Totter Wall, the bright-pink seesaws threaded through the US–Mexico border wall in 2019, appears here on a pedestal with documentation of the action, alongside inflatable Tyvek coats for temporary shelter and REUNITE, an open-source protest poster. It runs from 25 September to 31 January 2027, and is worth a look if you like design that is as interested in politics and materials as form.

Our summary of a story from Dezeen, published 1 October 2026. Read the original