Categories: Undergraduate Projects
Students Win AIASF Leadership Award
Students Win AIASF Leadership Award School of Architecture students and faculty were prominently represented at the AIASF Design Awards Ceremony and Gala. Architecture students were the recipients of the AIASF 2025 Leadership Award, in the Student Category, for their collaborative work on the Stay Over Program family shelter. Congratulations to the students! Lowai Ghaly, BArch…
B.lab Collaboration with Oakland Heritage Alliance
B.lab Collaboration with Oakland Heritage Alliance 16th St Station, located off Wood Street in West Oakland, sits empty. Damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake and long vacant, this important and iconic building is threatened with neglect. As a former Southern Pacific Rail station it served as the western headquarters for the International Brotherhood of…
B.lab Community-Based Design
B.lab Community-Based Design The B.lab program at the Academy of Art University in SF was founded in 2018. Through robust partnerships with neighbors, kids and local nonprofitss, the program has built 7 projects throughout the Bay Area. At its core, the B.lab is a design build program promoting spatial justice for local communities and advocacy for future designers.…
Volunteers Needed at the Stay Over Program
Volunteers Needed at the Stay Over Program Students at the School of Architecture designed and fabricated 80 folding beds for an emergency family shelter in San Francisco. A few of the beds need repairs so we are looking for a small group of volunteers on a Saturday. Tools and supplies will be provided.…
ACSA Conference Publication
ACSA Conference Publication ARH 498 faculty and students co-authored a paper presented at ACSA's 112th Annual Meeting: Disrupters on the Edge. Micro-Intervention and Co-Creation at a Family Shelter: Co-creation is not new, but it should be more widely embraced as one approach to tackle systemic problems. Paired with micro-interventions, it can reach those who are…
ARH students featured on NBC Bay Area, “Bay Area Proud”
ARH students featured on NBC Bay Area, “Bay Area Proud” We're so proud of the ARH students featured on NBC bay area, showcasing their design build work with the Stay Over Program shelter in San Francisco. See the article here: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/bay-area-proud/san-francisco-college-students-design-construct-dozens-of-beds-for-homeless-students-and-their-families/3465695/
Mid-Point Student Portfolios
Mid-Point Student Portfolios The purpose of the Undergraduate Midpoint Review is to provide students with an opportunity to reflect on their own progress, as well as to receive feedback, as they conclude the their sophomore studio. The department directors and faculty members will review student portfolios to personalize their class advisements based on their goals…
Kenta Oye
BArch Alumnus Kenta Oye Wins 2020 Unbuilt Design Merit Award + Urban Design Commendation Jury Comments: Urban planning in San Francisco has confined ethnic neighborhoods into inhuman urban spaces. The design approach aims to nurture the uses of intimate streetscapes. The response is to pave an urban aperture bridging Market and Mission streets as a…
Meet Everyday Heroes
Meet Everyday Heroes Sameena Sitabkhan, Adam Nuru and Markish Siojo All kids deserve a clean safe place to play, enjoy the outdoors and explore their surroundings. When SFHDC approached Sameena Sitabkhan, Director of B.Lab at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University, about designing and building a new active community space at our Bayview Commons residential development,…
Zoe Qiaoyu Zheng
Urban Living Room Bachelor Thesis by: Zoe Qiaoyu Zheng - B.Arch / Thesis Advisors: Philip Ra, AIA & Mini Chu Naturally, we tend to keep a certain distance when interacting with other people, especially during the post-pandemic era. The Urban Living Room aims to bring neighborhood life into public space while creating blurred boundaries that create…
B Arch Collaborative Project
Kid of Parts for the Bayview Commons Apartments, B Arch Collaborative Project, Building Lab - b.Lab Faculty: Sameena Sitabkhan, NOMA Students: Adam Nuru, Markish Siojo, Dylan Ingle, Fabio Lemos, Xiaohuan Corona Gao This is the second project by B.Lab in partnership with the Bayview Commons Community and San Francisco Housing Development Corporation in San Francisco…
Daniel Joonhee Lee
Sign-Up Sheet Bachelor Thesis by: Daniel Joonhee Lee - B.Arch / Thesis Advisors: Philip Ra, AIA & Mini Chu The project investigates the relationship between the sacred and the political, and the role of the autonomous citizen therein. Sign-up sheets are simple yet contractual. Where public services are exchanged, they are activating devices bringing citizens…
Unity Pavilion, B.Lab Community Based Design
Unity Pavilion for Northridge Cooperative Housing B Arch Collaborative Project Naomi Rojas, B.Arch Shunyi Yang, B.Arch Dylan Ingle, B.Arch Rhonuel Domingcil, B.Arch Fabio Lemos, B.Arch Corona Xiaohuan Gao, B.Arch Malak Bellajdel, B.Arch Kenta Oye, B.Arch Jacob Delaney, B.Arch Harikrishna Patel, B.Arch Daniel Cervantes, B.Arch Faculty: Sameena Sitabkhan, AIA and Eoanna Harrison, AIA The…
Kid of Parts, B.Lab Community Based Design
Kid of Parts at the Bayview Commons Apartments B Arch Collaborative Project Corona Xiaohuan Gao, B.Arch Fabio Lemos, B.Arch Dylan Ingle, B.Arch Markish Siojo, B.Arch Adam Nuru, B.Arch Faculty: Sameena Sitabkhan, AIA Program/ Project Description: This is the third project by B.Lab in partnership with the Bayview Commons Community and San Francisco Housing Development…
Nathan Lienhop: Dam Space
Dam Space: Utilizing kinetic techniques, adaptive architecture preserves, expands and enhances public event spaces to address the problem and opportunities of the annual flooding along the Peoria riverfront Bachelor of Architecture Thesis Project Student: Nathan Lienhop Faculty: Philip Ra, AIA & Mini Chu Utilizing kinetic techniques, this project seeks to address the problem of…
Juliana Bento: Path to Water
Path to Water: Reclaiming ownership of water for self-reliance in rural Angola, Africa Bachelor of Architecture Thesis Project Student: Juliana Bento Faculty: Philip Ra, AIA & Mini Chu The lack of preparation by the Angolan authorities to supply clean water to all citizens is a problem that is used as an opportunity to design…
Kenta Oye: Infilling the Void
Infilling the Void: Blurring Defined Perceptions to Create Spaces for Undocumented Residents in Transition Bachelor of Architecture Thesis Project Student: Kenta Oye Faculty: Philip Ra, AIA & Mini Chu Urban planning in San Francisco has confined ethnic neighborhoods into inhuman urban spaces. Being fourth generation Japanese-American, my ancestors used to inhabit and thrive in…
Benjamin Schindel: Weaving the Divide
Weaving the Divide Bachelor of Architecture Thesis Project Student: Benjamin Schindel Faculty: Philip Ra, AIA & Mini Chu Bridging the dominant railway edge in the rural city of Lacombe, Canada to connect the urban spaces and blend programs that enhance the city experience and promote pedestrian movement. How can we engage urban edges and…
Sarah Berting: The New-Burbia
The New-Burbia | Reimagining the urban living condition in the Civic Center of San Francisco Bachelor of Architecture Thesis Project Student: Sarah Berting Faculty: Philip Ra, AIA & Mini Chu Gentrification has revitalized devastated neighborhoods and districts in San Francisco but in turn has also caused housing prices to rise, displacing those who are…
Designed with Community, Built by Students Fundraising Campaign Ends July 12th!
Campaign ends July 12th! Help support our student campaign to build an outdoor gathering space offering joy and relief to the residents of the Bayview Commons Apartment Building in Bayview-Hunters Point, California Designed with Community, Built by Students https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kid-of-parts#/ The Bayview Commons Apartments is an affordable community in service since 2003, located in the Bayview-Hunters…
Ramona Gakuba
Steeped in Stigma: Reimagining healing in the Rwandan community experiencing intergenerational trauma Bachelor Thesis by: Ramona Gakuba B.Arch / Thesis Advisors: Philip Ra, AIA & Mini Chu Awards B.Arch Thesis Humanitarian Award Rwandans have suffered a loss of identity due to generations of trauma. When the Germans and Belgians colonized the country Rwandans…
Brett Greene
Love Your Neighbor: Rebuilding a dignified sanctuary for the homeless community in post-pandemic Nashville Bachelor Thesis by: Brett Greene – B.Arch / Thesis Advisors: Philip Ra, AIA & Mini Chu Awards AIA Henry Adams Medal for General Excellence in Architecture The current pandemic has devastated the homeless community and completely changed the way…
Ryan Shuangrong Zhong
Heterotopias: Transforming obsolete spaces into heterogenous environments for the displaced Bachelor Thesis by: Ryan Shuangrong Zhong– B.Arch / Thesis Advisors: Philip Ra, AIA & Mini Chu If dwelling in the city today means to live, experience, and learn, then how is that achieved for displaced people in high-density areas without creating urban slums…
Community Design Trip!
Sameena Sitabkhan takes Community Design to Bosnia Herzegovina November 8, 2019 Sameena Sitabkhan, full-time undergraduate faculty member was recently invited through the US State Dept Arts Envoy program to conduct two design workshops for high school students in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Balkans. The workshops aimed to show how design can be a tool…
Saleh Alajmi: Urban Table
Urban Table Bachelor of Architecture Thesis Project Student: Saleh Alajmi Faculty: Philip Ra, AIA & Mini Chu Problem: Architecture can have an impact on peoples’ relationship with food. The industrialization of American society over the past two centuries has distanced people from the source of their food this distance has significantly contributed to an…
Point Perch at Hunter’s Point
Academy Cares: Point Perch at Hunter's Point Great news! Our Design Build Point Perch video is up for the people's choice on the AIA page - We need voters! "Point Perch," a seating installation designed and built by AAU undergraduate architecture students together with the Hunters Point Community is documented in a short film…
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