Sophia Francesco is a Mexican American (Tacuate-Mixtec) architectural designer currently based in Providence, Rhode Island. She earned her Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) with double minors in Nature-Culture-Sustainability Studies and History-Philosophy-Social Sciences. While at RISD, she received the 2025 Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal︎︎︎, the Warner-Cook Prize, and the Undergraduate Architecture Thesis Award.
Sophia was a 2025 Maharam STEAM Fellow︎︎︎, concentrating on social justice and sustainability with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe Museum and Research Center︎︎︎ in Connecticut. In 2024, she was awarded the RISD Discovery Grant to work with the Navajo Nation Department of Community Development︎︎︎ on master planning for 110 Chapter communities. She has been featured in the Madame Architect Next Gen Series, RISD Media Student Spotlight, and Bucks County Herald. She continues to serve on the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Bucks County︎︎︎ board and with the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA)︎︎︎ as an emerging professional. You can find her currently working as a DownCity Design︎︎︎ Educator in the DownCity Designers: Design Build Studio in Providence, Rhode Island.
Sophia’s emerging design practice, being-belonging︎︎︎, focuses on community engagement to empower the active participation of all beings in forming stronger systems of care in the built environment. She continues to work with organizations that intentionally center on an interdisciplinary team of designers addressing the complexities of the world around them.
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Sophia was a 2025 Maharam STEAM Fellow︎︎︎, concentrating on social justice and sustainability with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe Museum and Research Center︎︎︎ in Connecticut. In 2024, she was awarded the RISD Discovery Grant to work with the Navajo Nation Department of Community Development︎︎︎ on master planning for 110 Chapter communities. She has been featured in the Madame Architect Next Gen Series, RISD Media Student Spotlight, and Bucks County Herald. She continues to serve on the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Bucks County︎︎︎ board and with the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA)︎︎︎ as an emerging professional. You can find her currently working as a DownCity Design︎︎︎ Educator in the DownCity Designers: Design Build Studio in Providence, Rhode Island.
Sophia’s emerging design practice, being-belonging︎︎︎, focuses on community engagement to empower the active participation of all beings in forming stronger systems of care in the built environment. She continues to work with organizations that intentionally center on an interdisciplinary team of designers addressing the complexities of the world around them.
Resume and portfolio available upon request, and can be reached at sfrancescostudios@gmail.com
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︎Artist Liz Collins Invites Queer Communities Home in Upcoming RISD Museum Show /2025
︎Brown hosts bi-annual Ivy Native Conference highlighting Indigenous Activism / 2025
> Advancing Equity in Design: Ballinger Scholarship Recipients / 2025
︎@RISD1877 Student Spotlight / 2024
︎Madame Architect: RISD's Sophia Francesco on Community Efforts, Larger Narratives, and the Beauty of Change / 2024
︎RISD Students Expand Their Horizons Via Enlightening Summer Internships / 2024
︎Bucks County Herald: Summer internship in the Navajo Nation a lesson in community design / 2024
︎Studio Montclair: The Life & Culture of Modern Day Latinidad / 2023
︎Anderson Ranch Art Center Intern Exhibition: Magpie in the Morning / 2022
︎New Hope Arts: New Talent / 2021