This past week ArchDaily co-founders David Basulto and David Assael were kind enough to come to Tsinghua University as the first speakers in the EPMA SA Forum lecture series. 

They spoke about the founding of ArchDaily and its journey from the Spanish-language Plataforma Arquitecture to “the world’s most visited architecture website” published in three languages.  Certainly part of the site’s success comes from the co-founders’ mission to provide a tool for architects to improve the lives of urban residents across the world. 

Mindful of criticisms that the site focuses heavily on sleek renders and highly internationalized buildings, Basulto and Assael talked about their goal to use ArchDaily to connect architects around the world and showcase more projects that solve problems in less privileged areas. 

They emphasized the need for architects to go out into the world and learn from reality—not just books, journals, and classes.

Perhaps most importantly for those of us in China, the two Davids introduced their plans for opening up a new ArchDaily in China that will cater to a Chinese architecture audience and will be published in Mandarin. 

Expanding into other countries will enable them, according to Basulto and Assael, to promote local, vernacular architecture and emphasize function over form.  The Davids focused particularly on the use of architecture to alter people’s perceptions of place—city planners have objective goals to improve the lives of urban residents, but it is architects who can affect how people view their cities, which can revitalize poorer areas of the world. 

Since China is urbanizing so quickly the country was an obvious choice for a new ArchDaily branch.  The co-founders expressed a hope that establishing a Chinese ArchDaily will help the rest of the world understand what’s going on in China, which could help solve problems in other rapidly developing countries.