How David Basulto Built ArchDaily from the Edge of the World

What if access to architectural knowledge wasn't limited by geography or economics? David Basulto, founder of the world's most visited architecture platform ArchDaily, has transformed how architects and designers access information about their craft.

Starting from the "corner of the world" in Chile, Basulto built a digital platform that disrupted traditional architectural publishing and connected creative minds globally. In our conversation, he reveals how geographical isolation sparked innovation, why embracing an entire world beyond traditional design centers proved revolutionary, and how his current Berlin-based ventures continue to build bridges between creative communities.

David recalls. "I started to find amazing people. I began meeting people from other countries—imagine, from being in a country that is at the end of the world, I started to know people in Europe, people in China. This for me was fantastic."

This early exposure to global connection through technology planted the seeds for what would become ArchDaily. The genesis came from a fundamental problem: access to architectural knowledge was expensive and geographically limited.

The office of ArchDaily back then

"Architecture is a creative profession in which you want to see what others are doing—case studies, information. At that time, this was in the form of books, books that were very expensive," David explains. "To have access to knowledge, to information was not easy, especially again at the end of the world, because information was being produced in the centers. The architecture books were from Western Europe, from the US, not from Chile."

The limitations weren't just financial: "For that paper, that heavyweight thing to travel to South America takes a lot of time and a lot of extra cost. So I was spending a lot of time in the library at my university, always very obsessed about what was being done in Italy, what was being done in Finland—taking photos, scanning pages, storing on my hard drive."

The office of ArchDaily back then

This frustration with limited access converged with a fortuitous meeting: "Another student, also named David, came to me and said, 'I think that through information we can improve the quality of life in cities.' It was a bold, abstract statement, and I said, 'I think you're right, because if people have better access to information, they can do better architecture, and therefore we will have better cities.'"

Without business plans or marketing strategies—just pure instinct—the two Davids began creating an online platform for sharing architectural knowledge. What started as a blog in Spanish began growing rapidly, attracting a surprising international audience.

"When we saw that we had a lot of views from the US, from Italy, from China, from Japan, we asked ourselves, 'Why are these people using this platform?' It was because we were bringing online a lot of content that was before in expensive magazines. We started to create something open, under the laws of the internet—open, scalable, free, but also democratic."

David's geographical position—so often considered a disadvantage—became one of ArchDaily's greatest strengths.

"We really like to look at Chile on the map. It is that thin variant, surrounded by the endless mountains on one hand, the endless ocean on the other, the driest desert," David reflects. "So you're very isolated. Not so many things come out of Chile. We like to say that our soccer team is very good, that Chilean wine is very well known abroad, but at the end, it's very few things."

Servan Workspace Project / Studio Vincent Eschalier via ArchDaily

© Axel Dahl

This isolation fostered a global perspective that many competitors lacked: "When you're in the US, the world is the US. But as being in the corner, for us what was happening in Western Europe, in Eastern Europe, in Southeast Asia, in the Middle East, was as interesting as what was happening in the US."

While traditional architectural publishers were hesitant to embrace the internet due to their successful print-based business models, ArchDaily leapt ahead by focusing entirely on digital content. This approach allowed them to highlight innovation happening in unexpected places.

"Imagine in Iran—Iran that is like blocked for many things—they were doing fantastic things with handmade brick. In Southeast Asia, they were doing fantastic things with bamboo construction. We started to create bidirectional bridges between this world and the northern hemisphere."

This global perspective became their competitive advantage: "We started to weave this network that began bringing new things and started to give opportunities to many people who were, let's say, left out. We started to build them as the most important creators."

While ArchDaily began with a passion for sharing information, David and his partner had to develop a sustainable business model. The insight came when they realized they had created "a database of trusted recommendations."

"When architects understood that the recommendations between architects were very powerful—because if you see a very good architect that used this material, you can say this is a trusted recommendation," David explains. "It's like everything online today with reviews and influences. What architects do in good projects with good materials became our value proposition."

Servan Workspace Project / Studio Vincent Eschalier via ArchDaily

© Axel Dahl

This realization led to a marketplace model connecting architects with materials, consultants, and partners: "The value proposition was the best projects by the best architects and therefore with the best materials, with the best consultants. This was like a virtuous cycle—if we publish more projects, we'll attract more architects who are interested in seeing more information, and they'll also be interested in seeing new materials, consultants, partners that would help in their projects.

When they launched in English, they strategically positioned themselves in New York, the center of global architecture at the time. "Many people thought our website was actually from New York—'Oh, it's an American company'—which in the beginning I think was helpful."

Their goal was ambitious but clear: "Our goal was to be the biggest, the most trusted platform, because we said if we reach this milestone, making sales is going to be very easy. People will come to us because they will say, 'They have the center.'"

David's approach to entrepreneurship balances creativity with practicality—a lesson he learned through trial and error.

"In a way, I would say this is also kind of a challenge when you are starting something, because if you get very creative, you want to challenge the status quo and do things in new ways," he reflects. "But then you shouldn't reinvent the wheel for everything."

This balance became an ongoing consideration: "Sometimes we'd say, 'Should we do accounting in a different way? Should we have a different billing system?' But then we'd say, 'No, we have to create this business. Maybe we should really ask someone working in a large company how they do this, and do it in the same way.'"

El Recer House / Viraje arquitectura via ArchDaily

© Sonia Sabnani

Finding the right equilibrium was crucial: "Sometimes creativity was helpful and would give you perspective to do things in a different way, but sometimes we'd say, 'No, we shouldn't reinvent the wheel for this thing or that one.' It was always this duality—how to innovate, but in the same way, how can you bring learnings from established companies in terms of processes, scale, and most importantly, structural order?"

Both David and his business partner shared an innate entrepreneurial spirit, shaped by their upbringing and necessity.

"We both have maybe an entrepreneurial background because both our fathers were doctors. And doctors are usually very entrepreneurial themselves—they had their own practice, they worked on their own. They always had this story: if you don't work, if you don't see patients, you do not get paid. So it's entrepreneurial, and we were seeing this all around us."

Even as students, they demonstrated this initiative: "While doing university, we were doing our own business because architecture is expensive. You have to buy many materials, you want books. So I was doing websites, doing renders for people in my university, fixing their computers—doing all these things on my own to have money to pay for things in my career. And my partner was making pants—he learned how to make them, he would have a seamstress, and he was selling pants in the university."

This entrepreneurial foundation helped them to start intuitively and eventually develop a more structured approach.

David attributes much of their success to the willingness to ask for help and learn from others.

"We started to meet a lot of people doing business on the internet, other entrepreneurs not just in Latin America but in Europe, in the US. And we had the chance to meet very interesting people."

A breakthrough came when they joined Endeavor, a business network based in New York that helps entrepreneurs in emerging countries. "I remember the moment we entered. That was a very intense process because it was very competitive—they want to have the most promising companies. And they told us, 'Okay, now you enter. Guys, you are doing something very interesting. Maybe you would like to meet the CEO of Google?' What? 'He will receive you tomorrow for breakfast.'"

ArchDaily opened the world of design and architecture to many

These connections provided invaluable mentorship: "During many years, we started to ask people. Some people may be like, 'Ah...' but many people would say, 'Oh, I am open, I can give you half an hour, maybe one hour.' Maybe they would get interested and you would start a relationship."

This experience reinforced the value of sharing knowledge: "I think that kind of ingenuity will lead you to establish connections with people who share. And that also made us feel that it was our responsibility to share, to open spaces for people to join our company. We had an ongoing internship program where we'd bring in people from different backgrounds, from different countries, with fresh ideas."

The results were rewarding: "Eventually many people in our company entered as interns, then went into junior positions, senior positions, and some were C-level executives when we sold the company to the Swiss media. In a way, they did their whole career in a short time, in a few years working with us. And that was, from my perspective, super rewarding."

David sees travel as essential for creativity and innovation—something that has shaped both his architectural perspective and his entrepreneurial approach.

"I feel now, to start something new, part of my methodology is that it's good to see what is happening now in the Gulf region, what's happening now in Southeast Asia, what is happening now in northern Africa. You have to see it, and you have to have these kinds of conversations."

The purpose is clear: "When you go outside of your safe zone, your known zone, it's when you get more inspiration. To get this divergent thinking, you need to be exposed to new ideas, to new ways of doing, and the best way to do that is by traveling."

He sees this as fundamental to architectural thinking: "That is why architects travel a lot, because you go to see buildings that are in a different city, in a different climate, that are done in a new way. And that makes this kind of click in your head—there's a mixture between what you know and what is surprising you, and that leads to inspiration."

David Basulto, 2023, Milan.

David has developed this into a philosophy of creativity: "Inspiration is something that you can actually cultivate—it is a science, a mental state that requires a mixture of things. For me, the most interesting thing was what we could call 'divergent thinking.' That is a mixture of your knowledge—because you need to know about something, or let's say in architecture, you know about how to do buildings, you know about the technical aspects, you know about materials. But then when you're exposed to different new things, you make a combination of what you know with the new to create something new."

He emphasizes that creativity can be developed systematically: "You can read about this—divergent thinking is a whole area of learning. You understand it can be a technique. Like the same as going to a gym, you can go to a mental gym to develop your creative side through exposing yourself to see the new."

After selling ArchDaily to a Swiss media company, David is now embarking on new ventures. This transition brought mixed emotions but also fresh opportunities.

"We both continue to work together—we're doing some real estate projects together, investing in tech startups together. And now I also think about what I can do here in Berlin with my network, with the things that I'd like to do."

Starting over comes with both familiar feelings and new challenges: "On one side, it feels natural because I have done this before, so it helps you a lot to have perspective. But on the other hand, it's new—it's a new context with different rules."

His answer has been to look outward again: "In the last months, I have been traveling even more intensively than before because I want to see what is happening in the world, how the world has evolved, what are the interesting things happening. The same as before, we saw change in certain parts of the world. There are other parts of the world that are providing this opportunity, that are fostering something new."

The key insight is adaptation: "You cannot do it in the same way as before. It has to be something different. The context of the internet has changed, AI is posing tremendous challenges, the methods of distribution are different. So of course, you have kind of a pressure that you cannot do the same. But at the same time, it's what will lead to probably do something more innovative."

One of David's new ventures, HOLDER Objects, aims to connect creative communities across continents. "Now I partner with a team to create something in Berlin, bringing creativity from Chile and then from the rest of Latin America. Recently there was a very important exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York about radical design in Latin America. And when you see that, it's very powerful."

Tori Stool by Ries via HOLDER Objects

He recognized an opportunity to build connections: "We said, what if we create a model like a gallery to bring Latin American designers and their stories, and of course their objects, into northern Europe? Our focus is now in Germany, to bring their ideas, their stories, and establish bridges between Latin America and Europe."

This project reflects David's ongoing mission to connect creative communities across geographical boundaries—a thread that has run throughout his career, from making architectural knowledge accessible worldwide to now creating pathways for Latin American designers to reach European markets.

David Basulto is the founder of ArchDaily, one of the world's most visited architecture platforms. After selling the company to a Swiss media group, he is currently based in Berlin, where he continues to build bridges between creative communities through various entrepreneurial ventures.