Case Study: MIT Media Lab streamlines visual project management and builds a replicable "school‑in‑a‑box" with Airtable

How artist Kim Holleman uses Airtable to reimagine school interiors

The MIT Media Lab engaged artist Kim Holleman to design and prototype a flexible, storefront-based Wildflower Montessori school and related exhibits, but she struggled to organize the flood of images, materials, instructions, budgets and remote collaborators needed to build each space. Holleman needed “visual spreadsheets” that handled photos, links and rich media alongside traditional fields, so she turned to Airtable to manage the project data and coordination.

Using Airtable, Holleman built a reusable “school in a box” base with tables for Project Overview, BUILDING LIST and separate asset libraries, attachment fields for images, form views for quick data entry, a currency field and summary bar that automatically tallied costs, and an integrated chat for clarifying tasks. The Airtable solution let teams copy and customize the template for each new site, supporting replication and remote collaboration; by 2016 Holleman’s workflow backed the development of 11 Wildflower schools and continues to serve as the authoritative blueprint for new builds.

MIT Media Lab

Kim Holleman

Artist