Sophia Francesco (Tacuate-Mixteca) is a community-based designer.
Sophia’s work focuses on collective engagement and community outreach to empower the active participation of all beings to form stronger systems of care in design practices. Her expanding practice being-belonging︎︎︎ is rooted in architecture and world-building.
She graduated from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) with a Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) and concentrations in Nature-Culture-Sustainability Studies and History, Philosophy, and the Social Sciences. While at RISD, she received the 2025 Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal︎︎︎, Warner-Cook Prize, and the Undergraduate Architectural Thesis Award.
She has previously worked with the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center︎︎︎ as a Maharam Design Fellow︎︎︎, the Navajo Nation Department of Community Development︎︎︎, Anderson Ranch Arts Center︎︎︎, and the James A. Michener Art Museum︎︎︎.
You can currently find her working with DownCity Design︎︎︎ as an Assistant Design Educator in the DownCity Designers: Design Build Studio. Sophia is looking to work with organizations that intentionally center on an interdisciplinary team of designers addressing the complexities of the world around them.
![]()
Sophia’s work focuses on collective engagement and community outreach to empower the active participation of all beings to form stronger systems of care in design practices. Her expanding practice being-belonging︎︎︎ is rooted in architecture and world-building.
She graduated from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) with a Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) and concentrations in Nature-Culture-Sustainability Studies and History, Philosophy, and the Social Sciences. While at RISD, she received the 2025 Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal︎︎︎, Warner-Cook Prize, and the Undergraduate Architectural Thesis Award.
She has previously worked with the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center︎︎︎ as a Maharam Design Fellow︎︎︎, the Navajo Nation Department of Community Development︎︎︎, Anderson Ranch Arts Center︎︎︎, and the James A. Michener Art Museum︎︎︎.
You can currently find her working with DownCity Design︎︎︎ as an Assistant Design Educator in the DownCity Designers: Design Build Studio. Sophia is looking 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
︎
︎Artist Liz Collins Invites Queer Communities Home in Upcoming RISD Museum Show /2025
︎Brown hosts bi-annual Ivy Native Conference highlighting Indigenous Activism / 2025
︎Entre Mundos: Identity, Sexuality and Culture through Queer Mexican Art with Davíd Felipe-Rodríguez /2025
> Advancing Equity in Design: Ballinger Scholarship Recipients / 2025
> RISD Community Honors Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Poet Nikki Giovanni / 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