Meet Elena Manferdini of Atelier Manferdini

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elena Manferdini

Hi Elena, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in Bologna, an Italian city that even today preserves its medieval characteristics. The city is a complex fabric of layered facades, deep arcades, leaning towers, and unfinished churches. I lived immersed in a rich visual and material culture of buildings that for centuries have shaped Italy’s public and private life. I often say that my childhood took place in a postcard; one that never changes. In retrospect, I was privileged to be in close contact with art and architecture since my early years. In 1997, I left Italy as an exchange student with a scholarship from UCLA. As soon as I arrived in Los Angeles, I realized that I loved the creativity and the fresh approach to technology, as it was taught in the studio format at AU+D. I was excited by the fast growth of the city, its multicultural character, and its formalist architecture. After my master’s degree in Architecture, I moved to work as a designer in an architectural firm and in 2004, I opened my own office, Atelier Manferdini. Since 2003, I have been faculty at SCI-Arc, one of the nation’s few independent architecture schools. Located in downtown Los Angeles’s Arts District, SCI-Arc is a hub for creativity and experimentation. Since 2015, I have been Graduate Programs Chair at SCI-Arc.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I am the first woman in my family to attend graduate school. My parents were and still are service-minded, progressive people who instilled in me the importance of education, work ethic, financial independence, and community engagement. Despite that, studying abroad was not in the cards until I received a scholarship and much needed trust at a time that was crucial for my artistic career; at 22 I left Italy because of an act of generosity of the Architecture department at UCLA, an institution that supported me during my graduate studies. My story is not dissimilar to that of many international students who come to this country to study and then remain in the USA. The road has not been a smooth one. During my first years in this country, I experienced how being a foreigner negatively affected my career and my freedom to grow professionally. I have also directly experienced how institutional gender discrimination can negatively impact opportunities and security.

But for the people that know me, I am tenacious, I never take anything for granted, and I am not scared of working hard for a project I believe in. As an instructor at SCI-Arc, I have had the opportunity of working alongside talented, creative, and insightful faculty; I have been inspired by the tenacity and creativity of my students. And I have been able to develop my architectural and artistic practice thanks to a school that encourages faculty in their academic and professional development. As an educator, I learned that architecture is never an individual journey—rather, intellectual and design values are nurtured by strong, self-confident communities. My commitment to promoting diversity at SCI-Arc—an institution where I act as Graduate Programs Chair—is grounded in my personal experience, my many years of leadership and teaching, and my deep commitment to art and architecture.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Atelier Manferdini?
The scale of the human body has been always an exciting one for Atelier Manferdini’ s multidisciplinary production. And among the possible areas of design, jewelry especially brings to the fore the values that are shared in the field of architecture such as aesthetics and the power of visual culture. This month, in December, Atelier Manferdini is launching “Adoro”, a fine jewelry line Elena Manferdini designed for Judith Ripka. It will be sold at top jewelry stores in the US over the holiday season.

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Being in leadership position involves making decisions that have repercussions on a larger community of people. And for this precise reason, the idea that a good leader is a risk taker is a lie. A good leader is one that is prepared to make changes because they have done the homework. A leader’s first mental activity should be answering two important questions: how have others done it and failed? And how have others done it and succeeded? Looking at the action of a leader from the outside, one could label them as a generic risk aptitude, but for the people directly involved in the endeavor, risk is, in fact, a calculated opportunity and not an act of faith in blind luck. Taking a risk comes from the confidence of experience, margins, strategy, and communication.

And for all of the above, in my position as a leader at SCI-Arc, I am not a risk taker. I am a creative person and I like to work with creative people and often offer opportunities to young professionals that never had one before (this might be seen as a risk, but to me it represents a fresh opportunity of growth). I like to be prepared. I like to know how I am going to do things and what the end result should look like. Most importantly, I want to fully understand what could go wrong. In time, this elimination process becomes second nature. Success takes work, commitment, and stamina. It takes also, and most importantly, a team of people that believe in a mission. Rather than honing in on a potential leader’s risk aptitude, organizations should shift their focus to their diversity and inclusion practices so that they don’t become insular.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ateliermanferdini.com
• Instagram: @atelier_manferdini; @sciarc
• Other: www.sciarc.edu