B.lab


The B.lab is a design build program at the Academy of Art University promoting spatial justice for local communities and advocacy for future designers.  
   
2025 AIASF Student Leadership Award      
2021 SFHDC Everyday Heroes Nominee
2019 San Francisco Challenge Grant Awardee
2018 SF Design Week Student Innovation
2015 AIASF Community Alliance Award



Contact 

Academy of Art 
School of Architecture 
601 Brannan Street
San Francisco CA

Sameena Sitabkhan RA NOMA
B.lab Director

Email Us


Partners
826 Valencia
Bayview  Commons Apartments
Buena Vista Horace Mann Community School
Code Tenderloin
Dolores Street Housing Corporation
Housing Consortium of the East Bay 
Habitat for Humanity SF, The John Stewart Company
KIPP Bridge School
West Oakland Environmental Indicators
Lave Mae
Literacy for Justice
MPI Homes
Mesh DBS
Mission Housing Development Corporation 
Northridge Cooperative Homes
NCH UNITY garden 
SF Marin Foodbank
Oakland Heritage Alliance
San Francisco Housing Devt Corp 
San Francisco Parks Alliance
San Francisco Community Challenge Grant 
San Francisco Public Works and Planning 
San Francisco Planning Department
Oakland Heritage Alliance


 Last Updated 09.14.26

2026
Mandela House Community SpaceWest Oakland, CA

Through community engagement with residents, students designed and built a vibrant communal space for Mandela House, a a 105 unit supportive Housing and adaptive re0se project in West Oakland 


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2023
Stayover Program Beds Mission, SF,CA

B.lab students fabricated 80 folding, mobile beds in design partnership with the Stayover program residents. Located in the Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 Community School in San Francisco is the first-of-its kind emergency family shelter in San Francisco. 

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2018Point Perch Hunters Point, SF, CA

Point Perch was designed and built after a lengthy outreach process with neighbors in the Hunters Point are of San Francisco. It is an outdoor gathering space with an undulating deck, benches and a stage. 


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2018Point Pantry Hunters Point, SF, CA

Point Perch was designed and built after a lengthy outreach process with neighbors in the Hunters Point are of San Francisco. It is an outdoor gathering space with an undulating deck, benches and a stage. 


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2020Unity Pavilion Hunters Point, SF, CA

Point Perch was designed and built after a lengthy outreach process with neighbors in the Hunters Point are of San Francisco. It is an outdoor gathering space with an undulating deck, benches and a stage. 


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2022
Passer(s)bySan Francisco, CA

Passer(s)by is a public space sited within Park Merced, a development built by the Met Life Company in 1941 that contains 2500 apartments alongside parks and courts.


















2024
16th Street StationWest Oakland, CA

Located off Wood Street in West Oakland, the 16th Street train station sits empty. From September- December 2024, Students partnered with the Oakland Heritage Alliance to envision futures for the station.

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2018-2026AdvocacyVarious Locations

As part of B.lab campaigns, students adovcate for and run fundraising campigns for their clients and projects.

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2018
Guerilla Coffee Unit San Francisco, CA

The Guerrilla Coffee Unit (GCU) refutes the gentrified, high end coffee-laden streetscapes by creating a free urban kitchen table and sanctuary for the city’s ever-more visible unhoused population.  


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2023
Kid of Parts Bayview, SF,CA

Through a children’s design workshop with kids being forced to shelter in place,  we designed and developed an outdor furniture installation in an existing outdoor courtyard.



2026
Video & MediaVarious

Click here for an assortment of B.lab Videos