Elena Manferdini

Elena Manferdini served as SCI-Arc’s Graduate Programs Chair from 2015 to 2025. She has been a member of the design faculty since 2003 and from 2010 to 2015 she served as coordinator of the graduate thesis program. During her tenure as Chair, she played a pivotal role in shaping the school’s graduate curriculum and advancing the cutting edge of architectural design within the NAAB-accredited M.Arch I and M.Arch II programs.

During her Graduate Programs leadership at SCI-Arc, she spearheaded several international collaborations, cultivating connections with institutions and partners in China, India, and Europe. Her efforts expanded the school’s global presence and fostered cross-cultural exchange in architectural education and experimentation.

A distinguished educator, Elena Manferdini has been recognized over the years with several prestigious academic appointments. She currently teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and has held notable visiting positions, including the Howard Friedman Visiting Professorship of Practice at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), as well as Visiting Professorships at Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, PoliMI and Seika University. In 2013, Manferdini received the Educator of the Year Presidential Award from the AIA Los Angeles, honoring her outstanding contributions to architectural education.

Since 2023, she has served as an external senior advisor for the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts in China. In 2024, the presidentially appointed 12-member Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board has selected Elena Manferdini for a Fulbright Specialist Award to the United Arab Emirates. Elena Manferdini joins the ranks of Fulbright alumni who have gone on to become heads of state, judges, ambassadors, CEOs, Nobel Laureates, and more.

Elena Manferdini founded her Los Angeles-based firm, Atelier Manferdini, in 2004. The firm is dedicated to creating design, architecture and public art, stemming from the desire to help make places of meaning within a community, and has completed projects in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

In 2011, she was one of the recipients of the prestigious United States Artists (USA) annual grant in the category of architecture and design. In 2013, she received both the Graham Award for Architecture and the ACADIA Innovative Research Award of Excellence. In 2016, Atelier Manferdini was awarded the PAN Award for the best public art project in North America, followed by two AIA Miami design awards in 2017 for the Alexander Montessori School facade. Manferdini’s artwork is included in the permanent collections of SFMoMA and LACMA.

In 2019, Manferdini was honored with the ICON Award as part of the LA Design Festival, which is a prize that recognizes iconic women who have made an indelible mark on Los Angeles, culture, and society in general through their work, character, and creative leadership, and more.