DIALOGUES: Ronald Rael + Behnaz Farahi

Ronald Rael is the Eva Li Memorial Chair in Architecture in the Department of Architecture in the College of Environmental Design, and is also a member of the art faculty in the Department of Art Practice at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests connect indigenous and traditional material practices to contemporary technologies and issues. He is considered to be a design activist, author, and thought leader within the topics of additive manufacturing, borderwall studies, and earthen architecture. Rael is the author of Borderwall as Architecture: A Manifesto for the U.S.-Mexico Boundary, an illustrated biography and protest of the wall dividing the U.S. from Mexico and Earth Architecture, a history of building with earth in the modern era to exemplify new, creative uses of the oldest building material on the planet. Emerging Objects, a company co-founded by Rael, is an independent, creatively driven, 3D Printing MAKE-tank specializing in innovations in 3D printing architecture, building components, environments and products.

Behnaz Farahi is a designer, creative technologist and critical maker. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at the MIT Media Lab, where she leads the Critical Matter Research Group. Trained as an architect, she explores how to foster an empathetic relationship between the human body and the space around it through the implementation of emerging technologies.  Her goal is to enhance the interaction between human beings and the built environment by following morphological, and behavioral principles inspired by natural systems. Her work addresses critical issues such as feminism, emotion, bodily perception and social interaction. She specializes in computational design, interactive technologies, additive manufacturing and digital fabrication technologies.