Dear community,
As we close this crazy 2020, we look back on what happened during the year, from the buildings that left an impact, to the fast changing trends in the profession and in our built environment.
But as we prepare for a challenging 2021 I want to share our reflections on these intense moments, which are not just a consequence of the pandemic, but also of the diverse and much needed social and cultural changes that have been unfolding during the last years. As a young and diverse Internet company, with a conscious and globally distributed team, we have been working during the last years to embrace change, as we think it is one of the attitudes that can prepare us for a world that is changing fast, on the intersection of two of the industries that are shaping society today: Internet and the built environment. To be ready for change is not easy, as we need to constantly challenge ourselves and our egos, and do things in new ways, in new contexts. But as 2020 demanded, we were ready.
Empathy became an important aspect of what we do. Even if we were always a remotely distributed organization, the switch to work completely online with our team in China, the United States, Chile, Germany, Switzerland, Lebanon, Brasil, Mexico, Colombia, Bosnia, among others, required us to be more aware of the different conditions where our colleagues were working from. From complete lockdowns, with homes that turned into schools and offices, to the scarcity of Internet access. But as a generation who is sensitive to our world, we were able to become even a stronger, more connected team. Through our extensive network we not only scouted and received projects from all over the globe, but we also listened to the architects that we exchange with, the humans behind the projects. Your innovations, your concerns, your challenges, your worries, your solutions, your ideas became an active part of what we broadcasted to the world during this year, where the need to have access to architectural knowledge to design for a new world took our platform to receive more than 20 millions visitors per month.
In this new context, where physical events disappeared and the need for solutions and knowledge increased, the upcoming digitalization of our industry accelerated, impacting not only how we work, but also how our architectural mindset could be applied, seeing the birth of many architecture startups that tackled the challenge of scaling and democratizing the access to architecture thanks to technology. That is why we were happy to share earlier this year that we have merged with Architonic, working as one organization, with two independent platforms that will strengthen each other, to pursue our common mission of improving our built environment by empowering those who do architecture, providing inspiration, knowledge, and tools. During 2021 we will unveil new features of our platforms to bring the industry closer together, from architects, suppliers, manufacturers, and the vast network of experts and consultants behind the buildings.
We are still recovering from this crazy 2020, but we are ready to embrace 2021 with open arms and open senses, to be more human while we scale our platform, to help you shape the future of our built environment.
David B.
Founder
