B.Lab Presents at AIA East Bay
School of Architecture B.Lab faculty and students were invited to present their recent project at AIA East Bay.
At its core, the B.Lab is a design build program promoting spatial justice for local communities and advocacy for future designers. Through radical listening and co-creation, we empower and hope to bring positive change to the built environment. The Program was founded in 2018 and has built 7 projects throughout the Bay Area through robust partnerships with neighbors, kids and local nonprofits.
The latest project was the for the Stay Over Program (SOP) at the Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 Community School in San Francisco, the first-of-its kind emergency family shelter in San Francisco. The SOP uses an active school gym to house 80 family shelter beds and support services, creating a model that allows families a means to transition to stable housing. The program requires a complex partnership between the school, a non-profit shelter operator, SFUSD, and San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.
The B.Lab program came offered design as a tool to remove some of the pain points and to try to make easier the lives of the families residing in the shelter. To do this, we operated at the scale of a micro intervention and leaned on a co-creation process.
Sameena Sitabkhan is a California licensed architect committed to empowering the next generation of architects. Since 2018, she has been directing and teaching at B.Lab, the community-based design initiative at the Academy of Art school of architecture in San Francisco. The student designed and constructed projects have won numerous awards using creativity, listening and empathy to meet the needs of underserved communities in the Bay Area. In practice, Sameena has designed and led projects from schools and affordable housing to urban/art installations. She has held leadership positions at local firms including David Baker Architects and is currently a principal at Studio Sideproject in Oakland. In 2023, Sameena was an honoree of the 2023 Community Alliance Awards // Sandra I. Vivanco Education Award.
A first generation Guatemalan American who grew up in Lancaster, California, Amanda Estrada is currently a BArch student at the Academy of Art University. Driven by her parents fearless and unwavering quest, her goal is to help knit together the building blocks of architecture into a community where inhabitants can create their own spaces where they feel supported and safe for their own families.
BArch student Giewel David is an aspiring architect with a profound engagement in the visual and performing arts, actively exploring photography, sculpting, and painting alongside a deep admiration for ballet and opera. Her architectural approach is uniquely enriched by these artistic pursuits.
View a recording of the presentation at this link https://youtu.be/9p5OQlafC_c?feature=shared