BIPOC Design Archive Project

The Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) in the Built Project is a digital collection and remembrance of BIPOC designers and advocates that have shaped how we see and interact with the built environment and city form. This summer, students across MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P) and MIT Libraries have joined forces to create this resource. The project currently focuses on the U.S. (with plans to expand in the future to other countries) and highlights those who have made —and continue to make— contributions to the built environment in education and in practice. Over the course of eight-weeks, students have researched and written more than 30 original profiles, which will be an open resource via a forthcoming website.

The BIPOC in the Built Project, also highlights the shared collective gender and racial and ethnic diversity gaps in our traditional understanding of who shaped the fields of architecture, planning, engineering, history, art, and more. In response to this gap across collectively generated content, members of the BIPOC in the Built Project contributed over 30 new pages and contributions to existing Wikipedia pages for designers who were omitted from the online encyclopedia. In an effort to expand on this work, the BIPOC in the Built Project is hosting an Edit-a-thon the week of August 17-21.

The BIPOC Design Virtual Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, is open to all and seeks to expand the voices and perspectives shaping the BIPOC in the Built Project. The Edit-a-thon will allow for the inclusion of more members of the BIPOC design community who have left and are generating their mark on the fields of art, architecture, art history, activism, landscape architecture, urban planning, urban design and more to be featured in this project. After a short introduction held live via Zoom on August 17, stay for the kick off of the week-long remote Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon where attendees can participate in training and events that will build community around creating new and editing existing Wikipedia pages of BIPOC designers.