Elena’s lecture focusses on the effectiveness of visual languages (such as drawings and pictures) to formulate alternative realities.
Elena argues that creativity is one of the fundamental abilities that designers have to promote alternatives to the current reality. The act of imagining is a civic act done by the designer, which recognises that problems can’t be solved by an atrophied collective imagination, and that such collective imagination has to be continuously trained.
Biography
Elena Manferdini is principal and owner of Atelier Manferdini and has over fifteen years of professional experience in architecture, art, design, and education. In 2004, she founded Atelier Manferdini in Venice, CA. The office has completed projects in the US, Europe, and Asia. Since 2003, Elena has been part of the design faculty at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), where she is now the Graduate Programs Chair.
Elena has received the Howard Friedman Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of California Berkeley (UCB) and various Visiting Professor Positions at Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, and Seika University. In 2013 she was selected as recipient for the Educator of the Year presidential award given by the AIA Los Angeles.
Elena has received various awards for her work, including the ICON award from the LA Design Festival, two AIA Miami Design Awards, the 2013 COLA Fellowship, a Graham Award for Architecture, and the 2013 ACADIA Innovative Research Award of Excellence.
