Dear Architizer Community,
Thank you for the overwhelming response to last month’s news that industry leaders invested in Architizer. Your response made me realize that I need to do a better job of keeping our community in the loop. Architizer is working hard to effect real change in the industry, and in the spirit of openness, it’s vital to us that you are kept informed of our progress. That is why this article is the first in a monthly series where I will let you, our community, know what we are working on and what you can expect from us.
Today I want to tell you about some major changes coming to the content we produce.
A year ago we launched Source, a marketplace that connects architects with building-product manufacturers so that they can make smart product decisions. Source is still invitation-only, but in anticipation of its nationwide roll out in 2018, we are shifting our content to focus more on how buildings get built and the products that make it happen.
In a program that launched at the beginning of this month, every week Architizer will focus on a single product type in a series of articles that dive deep into the specifics of how to choose the right manufacturer, the right spec, the details of installation and the way technology is changing the building-product landscape.
This is a big shift for us and worthy of some nostalgia, though feel free to skip ahead for the nuts and bolts of the new content!
The Architizer homepage, circa 2015
Eight years ago, Architizer launched a blog to go along with our newly launched portfolio site. The portfolio site was designed to make architecture information democratic — but to do that we needed content to bring people to the site. We didn’t know it at the time, but we were pioneering the now prevalent practice of content creation for architects. There were no rules for how architecture should be published online and we tried a bunch of techniques to raise the profile of architecture online. It all started to look a lot like a typical disruption of old media by new media, complete with the established players yelling at the new kids and the occasional moment of BuzzFeed-inspired tomfoolery.
We pioneered architecture on Facebook and other social media channels (spawning an endless race with ArchDaily for more followers — love you guys!). Slowly the older players changed and invested in the web — all while new content sites continued to emerge and grow, like our hugely popular friends and partners at Dezeen.
There has never been such a panoply of architecture content accessible through so many different portals. This is a far cry from the guarded world of print publications that existed a decade ago. We have always believed that better information leads to better architecture, so this is a good thing.
New articles will dive deep into building-products and offer invaluable resources for architects.
While many forums are now talking about architecture, few are focusing on how buildings really get made — and that brings us to our new challenge. Moving forward you can count on Architizer for the latest trends in practice, in-depth investigations into building-products and cutting-edge news on technology in our field.
Every week we will dive DEEP into a specific building-product, exploring how to specify it, who is pushing technological boundaries with it and how it can be used to create truly incredible architecture. We will work to answer some of the most frustratingly obvious questions that architects have, that seem to never get answered — how to stop a flat roof from leaking, how to make a door disappear or how to attach metal cladding to a building.
The most exciting thing about this content is simple: It doesn’t exist anywhere else! Nowhere on the internet can you access this kind of information in such a carefully curated, beautifully presented way. These articles are intended to inform, educate, illuminate and inspire, moving beyond architecture media by providing resources that architects really need.
Architectural case studies will focus more on construction methods, material choices and design details, revealing how buildings really get built.
Everything we do at Architizer is designed to challenge architecture’s status quo. It is our core belief that better information makes better buildings. We don’t always get it right, but you can bet that we will keep on trying. You can count on more communication from us, including regular product updates from our product team and more explanation about where we are headed and why, so that you will be able to track our progress.
I hope you like the new content direction. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay in the loop, and feel free to drop me a note personally via mk@architizer.com if you have any thoughts about where we are headed.
Thank you for your continued support!
Marc and the team at Architizer