On this day twenty-five years ago Tim Berners-Lee launched the “World Wide Web” protocol at CERN in Switzerland, ushering in the age of the Internet. Over the last two decades this global information network has rapidly evolved, increasingly influencing how architecture is conceived, produced, discussed and ultimately implemented in real space.
ArchDaily is an evolving project of the Internet – an experiment in archiving, disseminating discourse and sharing content related to architecture and urbanism on a scale that was not possible as little as two decades ago. Since our foundation in 2008, we have operated around a single mission: to bring knowledge, inspiration and tools to the people who are, and will be, designing the urban centers which will accommodate our planet’s (exponentially rising) population. Most importantly for us, we are continually connecting people from around the developed and developing world by building a platform which operates in four languages—Spanish, English, Portuguese and Mandarin Chinese—to ensure that these discussions are available to the widest possible global audience.
We are ardent supporters of architecture, cheerleaders for design thinking, and—most importantly—advocates for open access to information about the built environment. With so many talented people who are consistently producing new ways for us to inhabit and understand the world around us, the entire global architecture community should be aware of, and have access to, cutting-edge research and information. This is our central motivation for focusing our efforts on publishing online.
The entire ArchDaily staff is constantly recognizing the outstanding debt that we owe to the pioneers of architectural print: to the people who started journals where others weren’t easily available, to those who valued not only discourse, but deliberation and critical thinking in architecture.
In June of this year, we received a handwritten message from one of our readers:
I am writing to thank you for your work. I grew up in a small country town in Victoria, Australia. I lived 3 1/2 hours drive from a city. My closest library has 5 books in the “architecture & design” category. I had no access to the world and history of architecture. Your website opened that world up for me. I found my passion and education through ArchDaily. In January I moved to Melbourne to begin my first year of my Architecture Degree at Monash University. I have never been happier.
Thank you for all you do.
While this is only one example from the many messages that we are fortunate to receive, it summarizes what we consider as our purpose. We are humbled by the fact that we reach between 400,000 and 500,000 (in English) visitors on a daily basis, and we vow to continue to empower the many architects and contributors who have made this incredible feat possible.
When ArchDaily’s co-founder, David Basulto, penned our first post on the 9th March 2008 he wrote: “Here comes ArchDaily! Architecture, day by day.” Our work—over 62,000 articles later—has been made possible by the Internet, and we are phenomenally excited to continue to develop alongside it.
David Basulto, Patrick Lynch, Amanda Pimenta, Becky Quintal, Rory Stott, and James Taylor-Foster
ArchDaily Global Team
