From a self-funding, architect-founded start-up in 2003 to DAAily platforms – the world’s biggest A&D community – we look at the mission, the milestones and the magic.

20 years is just the start, dear partners, colleagues and friends. There’s a lot more to come. Thanks for being part of the success story!

Architonic turns 20! Two decades of curating the best in products and materials | Novità

20 years is just the start, dear partners, colleagues and friends. There’s a lot more to come. Thanks for being part of the success story!

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Have we met before?

No, this isn't a chat-up line. It's an actual question. You see, I'm proud to say that I've been Editor-in-Chief at Architonic for well over a decade now. And, during that time, I – and, of course, the wider team – have been lucky enough to meet a lot of our community in person.

Architonic may be a pioneering digital business, but, from the outset, it's been a people business, too.

Vision and passion: Tobias Lutz (left) and Nils Becker, two ETH Zurich architect graduates, who together with Dieter Schumann and Thomas Navello, founded Architonic in 2003

Architonic turns 20! Two decades of curating the best in products and materials | Novità

Vision and passion: Tobias Lutz (left) and Nils Becker, two ETH Zurich architect graduates, who together with Dieter Schumann and Thomas Navello, founded Architonic in 2003

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Our relations with our partners – be they architects, designers, planners, premium design brands, high-end retailers, fairs or journalists – have been central to who we are and what we do. So, there's a good chance that you've met us at a fair, a conference, a dinner or, indeed, at one of our legendary signature Architonic parties.

You make us what we are: without the A&D community's trust in us and our vision, we would never have become the world's best-curated source for architectural products, materials and expertise

Architonic turns 20! Two decades of curating the best in products and materials | Novità

You make us what we are: without the A&D community's trust in us and our vision, we would never have become the world's best-curated source for architectural products, materials and expertise

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Why am I saying all of this? Because this year marks two decades of Architonic at the forefront of curating the best in architectural products and materials, an anniversary we’re fantastically proud of – and which we could never have achieved without your trust in us and our vision.

Ch-ch-changes: architonic.com and its various, ever-optimised homepage iterations throughout the years...

Architonic turns 20! Two decades of curating the best in products and materials | Novità

Ch-ch-changes: architonic.com and its various, ever-optimised homepage iterations throughout the years...

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Founded in 2003 by two architects – Tobias Lutz and Nils Becker – who’d graduated from the ETH in Zurich, along with IT specialists Dieter Schumann and Thomas Navello, Architonic launched from the offices of architectural practice Gramazio & Kohler. Two rented desks, one phone and a small coffee machine. Oh, and zero external investment. Why? Because we were convinced from the start of our vision and were adamant we wanted to have full control of the Architonic project. For years, we ploughed every penny of our profit back into business.

Concept spaces: Architonic's collaborations with renowned architects and designers over the past 20 years included the creation of unique installations to underpin our presence at key design trade fairs

Architonic turns 20! Two decades of curating the best in products and materials | Novità

Concept spaces: Architonic's collaborations with renowned architects and designers over the past 20 years included the creation of unique installations to underpin our presence at key design trade fairs

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Spool forward to 2023 and, together with ArchDaily and Designboom, we make up DAAily platforms, by far the world’s largest architecture and design community with over 270 million visits a year (generating over 3.7 billion page views!). Our joint mission is to inspire, connect and empower our ecosystem to create a better living environment for all.

We are Architonic: every single Architonic team member who's passed through our doors since 2003 has made an invaluable contribution to our success. We thank each and every one of them!

Architonic turns 20! Two decades of curating the best in products and materials | Novità

We are Architonic: every single Architonic team member who's passed through our doors since 2003 has made an invaluable contribution to our success. We thank each and every one of them!

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The founding motivation at Architonic – and a belief that still drives us today – is to embrace technology, and in particular new technologies, to deliver targeted solutions for architects, as well as planners, manufacturers, retailers and others. And always via our architect perspective on what architects out there really need. Specific tools for a specific community.

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Architonic's very first homepage from 2003. It may seem somewhat clunky now, but it got the job done...

Architonic turns 20! Two decades of curating the best in products and materials | Novità

Architonic's very first homepage from 2003. It may seem somewhat clunky now, but it got the job done...

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2003 Architonic is born: connecting architects with manufacturers

Back in the days of Web 1.0, architonic.com was launched with the clear objective of becoming the most comprehensive online resource for architecture and design. At the time, the only option for architects looking to specify premium products and materials for their projects was to trawl through endless manufacturer catalogues in their offices in the hope of finding the right stuff. Not a very effective use of their valuable time; and, of course, it was impossible to search by product category.

Architonic was developed to shake things up. A highly curated, highly credible, easily searchable database of the best brands (otherwise known as Architonic members), available on the internet, 24/7. We actually started out by scanning in a whole load of printed product brochures. One of the major challenges, amusingly, was to convince architects that it wasn’t a waste of time to allow their team to go online during work hours!

The Architonic Virtual Showroom was a major innovation, first launched in 2006, to bring specialist design retailers truly into the digital world and make them part of our inclusive ecosystem

Architonic turns 20! Two decades of curating the best in products and materials | Novità

The Architonic Virtual Showroom was a major innovation, first launched in 2006, to bring specialist design retailers truly into the digital world and make them part of our inclusive ecosystem

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2006 Virtual Showroom: folding retailers into our ecosystem

This was the time of e-commerce and its rapid rise. At Architonic, however, we were determined not to become an online shop. Rather, we wanted to develop further as an inclusive ecosystem for all actors in the industry. So, instead of cutting design retailers out of the picture, we helped them make further inroads into the online world by launching an innovative new service especially for them – the Architonic Virtual Showroom.

For the first time ever, dealers could maximise their presence in the market by having their own websites fed with real-time product data from the Architonic cloud. So whenever a brand they represented updated their collection, this would immediately be reflected on their pages.


We now enjoy almost a million Facebook followers, as well as a million on Instagram and Pinterest combined


2010 Let’s come together: social media and the expansion of the Architonic community

The advent of Web 2.0 and our major investment in an ambitious and consistent social-media strategy saw our community develop even further, in a much more participatory and visible way.

We quickly became experts in creating value for both our users and our industry partners via architect-focused, channel-specific content, strong on information, but always with the Architonic commitment to relevance and careful curation. Your engagement spurred us on and we’re now able to say we enjoy almost a million Facebook followers, as well as a million on Instagram and Pinterest combined.

Our by-architects-for-architects brand storytelling service has from day one sought to translate the messaging of our manufacturer members into engaging and informative narratives that speak the language of our professional community

Architonic turns 20! Two decades of curating the best in products and materials | Novità

Our by-architects-for-architects brand storytelling service has from day one sought to translate the messaging of our manufacturer members into engaging and informative narratives that speak the language of our professional community

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2013 Storytelling for architects: Architonic’s brand-content service

We kept hearing from many of our members that the old-fashioned press release or news story wasn’t cutting it anymore for them in their attempts to address architects. They needed something more effective, more relevant, that spoke the language of the design professional in an engaging and memorable way.

So, Architonic launched its dedicated brand-content service – high-quality, third-party-perspective design journalism, by architects for architects, which translates the brand and product messaging of our clients into professional narratives with intelligent take-aways. Always informative, always entertaining, sometimes emotional. Be it text-based or video, we’ve never stopped exploring new formats and, indeed, channels, to achieve the greatest impact.


Be it text-based or video, we’ve never stopped exploring new formats and, indeed, channels, to achieve the greatest impact


2015 Architonic x NZZ Media Group: a clear growth strategy for excellence

After over a decade in business, Architonic had 100 staffers, 200,000 products online and an impressive eight million visits a year internationally. Yet, to achieve our full growth potential and, importantly, to stay the global leader in our field, we realised we needed extra skills, additional talent and significant investment.

In 2015, we were delighted to be acquired by the NZZ Media Group – the Swiss publishing heavyweight with a centuries-old tradition of quality and rigour – and become the flagship in their digital portfolio. With our new owners behind us, we were able to secure our pole position in the market in terms of reach and relevance, and to enrich our services for our community, meaning both our manufacturer clients and our architect users.

Three channels, one purpose. Designboom, Architonic and ArchDaily form DAAily platforms, whose joint mission is to inspire, connect and empower our architecture and design community to create a better living environment

Architonic turns 20! Two decades of curating the best in products and materials | Novità

Three channels, one purpose. Designboom, Architonic and ArchDaily form DAAily platforms, whose joint mission is to inspire, connect and empower our architecture and design community to create a better living environment

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2020–2022 The family grows: ArchDaily and Designboom join to form DAAily platforms

In 2020, we acquired the world’s most visited architecture website, ArchDaily, in our push to become the world’s most relevant, one-stop destination for design professionals. Ranked in the top 1,000 sites globally by Alexa, ArchDaily shared a very similar DNA to that of Architonic – founded by architects for architects. With its focus on the curation of projects and Architonic’s focus on products, it was the perfect fit in terms of mission and culture. A truly international organisation where we could bundle our joint experiences.

Two years later, we were thrilled to bring the world’s first online magazine, Designboom, into the fold. And, in doing so, create DAAily platforms, a super-strong triumvirate of global A&D channels, each passionate about their specific audiences, yet able to share knowledge and cross-leverage skills to create the best experience for our users and partners across the board.

We're just as driven today as we were at the very start by a passion to leverage technology to innovate architect-targeted solutions, our new DAAily wallet NFT project being a clear example

Architonic turns 20! Two decades of curating the best in products and materials | Novità

We're just as driven today as we were at the very start by a passion to leverage technology to innovate architect-targeted solutions, our new DAAily wallet NFT project being a clear example

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2023 Web 3.0 is now: Architonic’s latest innovation phase

After 20 years, the itch to innovate is still what drives us. It’s in our DNA. So while, on the one hand, we’re busy developing cutting-edge software solutions like the increased automation of data-management and image-editing, meaning a stress-free implementation for manufacturers of their content for an optimal product presentation on Architonic, we’re also committed to playing an active role in shaping the digital future for the A&D community.


20 years is just the start, dear partners, colleagues and friends. There’s a lot more to come. Thanks for being part of the success story!


Whether it’s our leveraging of blockchain tech in the form of our new DAAily Wallet project to help brands prove their sustainability credentials and protect their products from copycats; our forthcoming DAAily Index tool, designed to allow our members to measure their online success; or deploying AI to give our users the best search experience – we’re resolutely future-facing.

© Architonic

Head to the Architonic Magazine for more insights on the latest products, trends and practices in architecture and design, or find inspiration in a whole world of projects from around the globe through ArchDaily's architecture catalogue.