History

ARCHIVE was incorporated as a non-profit organization in March 2006. It was initially the development of a three year independent research project funded by Columbia University and awarded to the founder and Executive Director Peter Williams who originally trained as an architect. After the duration of the project the research proved to be more enriching and relevant than ever imagined and a need was felt to find a way of sharing and discussing the contents of the work. This open source attitude is vital as awareness is one of the key missions of ARCHIVE.

ARCHIVE’s roots go back to a blog launched by Peter in March 2005. The blog focused on issues relating to fear, epidemics, public health policy planning, and of course, architecture. Feedback from the many visitors to the site showed that many shared a belief that such discussions were extremely relevant and underrepresented in both academia and among the general public.

ARCHIVE hopes to facilitate cross-disciplinary seminars and sponsor new research from leading academics and professionals from social science, medicine and architecture and planning. In 2010, ‘ARCHIVE Institute’ formally adopted ‘ARCHIVE’ as its working name.