ArchDaily has become one of the 1,000 most visited websites on the Internet, according to the latest Alexa Internet ranking -- an Amazon-owned company that measures the popularity of all Internet sites.
More than 360,000 users visit our flagship English-speaking platform every day, which when combined with our network of Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese sites, creates a daily global audience of 650,000 people: the most visited architecture network in the world.
But why is this relevant? Why do these numbers matter?
When we started this project 15 years ago, we knew that the expansion of cities would become the biggest challenge for humanity, and that architects, with better access to knowledge, had the ability to radically improve the quality of life of billions of people. That is why we envisioned ArchDaily as a global source of inspiration, knowledge, and tools to help architects face this challenge. A carefully curated, objective, categorized database of projects and knowledge, paired with a stream of globally diverse content.
But architecture is bigger than architects, and it has become - to our joy - a transversal subject. We have all, as a society, understood the importance of our built environment, how it can shape our mindset, improve our well being, form our education, and drive opportunities and set the grounds for a more egalitarian society. Moreover, a bounty of changes in urban and economic dynamics is also molding architecture into something more relevant, more recognizable, and more democratic. That is why our profession and craft are permeating into Netflix and Apple TV shows, becoming an object of admiration on Instagram, and representing something that you can dream of, aspire to, and work towards catalogues such as Pinterest.
Today, in the middle of the biggest healthcare crisis of our time, we become aware of the importance of our built environment, as we are forced to stay home and seek shelter. We see how the design and use of public space is being re-examined to face this issue. Moreover, we become aware of the millions of people to whom, due to their poor housing and infrastructure, this is a life-and-death problem.
As Cathleen McGuigan from the Architectural Record noted about the impact of the Internet, “the importance of architecture in the public mind has been met—with far wider knowledge and appreciation of design than 40 years ago, thanks in no small part to the Internet, where sites like ArchDaily draw millions of visitors.”
This is why our team has grown into a global, diverse collective intelligence distributed across Asia, Europe, Oceania, the Middle East, and the Americas, covering the world’s major challenges and the most avant-garde ideas that are shaping the built environment.
Becoming one of the 1,000 most visited websites on the Internet is a recognition of our mission, and it pushes us to continue evolving. We are proud, and we celebrate, but we stay humble and focused. We look forward to continuing to serve as an effective tool for architects around the world, and together with our community, making architecture an active part of a new, bright, future.
