Bio
Founder and Executive Director
Girls Garage, formerly Project H Design (2008-present)
Lecturer, College of Environmental Design
University of California, Berkeley (2016 -2020)
Master of Fine Arts in Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2003-2005)
Bachelor of Arts in Architecture
University of California, Berkeley (1999-2003)
In short…
Emily Pilloton-Lam is the Founder and Executive Director of the nonprofit Girls Garage. A designer, builder, educator, and author, she has taught thousands of young girls and gender-expansive youth how to use power tools, weld, and build projects for their communities. She has presented her work and ideas on the TED stage, The Colbert Report, CNN, and in the documentary film If You Build It. She is the author of 3 books about the power of community-based architecture. Emily has been Adjunct Faculty in the Architecture and Sustainable Design departments at UC Berkeley and Stanford University, and lives with her family, human and canine, in Berkeley, California.
At length…
Emily Pilloton-Lam is a designer, builder, educator, and Founder/Executive Director of the nonprofit Girls Garage. For the past 15 years, Emily has taught and worked alongside youth ages 9-18 to co-design and build public architecture projects. With students in her Studio H high school program and Girls Garage after-school and summer programs, she has built a farmers market pavilion, tiny homes for the unhoused, a school library, a public bus stop, urban farm structures, and more. She believes that by giving young girls and gender-expansive youth the physical and personal tools needed to build the world they want to see, we can change the authorship of our built environments and upend power structures within our communities. Her work combines technical STEM and trade skills with mentorship and support for the whole student that honors and amplifies their identities. With an educational philosophy rooted in community organizing, hands-on work, and bravery, Emily also works with educators and schools to reinvent learning through personalized and often politically engaged project-based learning.
Emily holds a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the University of California Berkeley, and a Master of Fine Arts in Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has held academic positions as a Lecturer in the College of Environmental Design at the University of California Berkeley, Stanford University’s Department of Architectural Design, and as a Visiting Professor at UC Davis, and is the author of three books, Design Revolution: 100 Products that Empower People, Tell Them I Built This: Transforming Schools, Communities, and Lives With Design-Based Education, and Girls Garage: How To Use Any Tool, Tackle Any Project, and Build The World You Want To See. Her work was the subject of the full-length documentary If You Build It, about her Studio H students’ farmers market project in rural North Carolina. She has presented her work on the TED Stage and to the Obama Administration’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, and has been featured on The Today Show, The Colbert Report, Forbes, and CNN. She lives with her family, human and canine, in Berkeley, California.
Awards and Honors
AIA SF Community Alliance Award, 2022
AIGA SF Fellow Award, 2022
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ YBCA100 (Girls Garage), 2019
Honorary Doctorate, Columbus College of Art and Design, 2018
SEED Award, Design Corps, 2015
Master of Design, Fast Company, 2011