How to use ArchiRef
A guide to searching, discovering, and organizing architectural references.
Search
ArchiRef's search engine is designed to understand architectural intent, not just keywords. Instead of tagging projects by single categories, we analyze the full context of each entry — its typology, materials, structural system, geographic setting, climate, and design philosophy.
This means you can search the way you actually think about architecture:
Try these kinds of queries:
- →By architect: "Tadao Ando residential projects" or "Zaha Hadid cultural buildings"
- →By type + location: "museums in Japan" or "social housing in Latin America"
- →By material + style: "concrete brutalist universities" or "timber pavilions"
- →By period: "minimalist houses after 2010" or "postmodern buildings 1980-1990"
- →By context: "coastal houses Mediterranean" or "mountain refuges Alpine"
- →Combined: "white minimalist coastal houses" or "award-winning libraries with natural light"
- →By design strategy: "museums with skylight" or "housing with cross ventilation"
- →By climate response: "natural ventilation tropical" or "passive solar housing"
- →By capacity: "auditorium for 500 seats" or "library 200 workstations"
The more specific your query, the more precise your results. But broad queries work too — searching "museums" will give you a diverse selection across styles, periods, and geographies.
Design strategies
ArchiRef understands architectural design strategies. Every project in our database has been analyzed for its daylight approach, facade system, climate response, circulation logic, and spatial organization. You can search using any of these terms and the engine will prioritize projects that match.
Daylight
How the building brings natural light inside.
Facade
The envelope strategy and skin articulation.
Climate response
Passive and active environmental strategies.
Circulation
How people move through the building.
Combine strategies with typologies
The most powerful queries combine a building type with a design strategy. Try "schools with central atrium and natural ventilation" or "office towers with double skin facade". The search engine understands these combinations and will find the most relevant precedents.
Explore a project
Click on any project card to open its detail view. Here you'll find:
You can also click on the architect's name to visit their landing page, where you'll find all their projects indexed on ArchiRef.
Boards
Boards are collections of projects that you curate. Think of them as thematic bookshelves — except they're searchable, shareable, and always with you.
Create a board
Go to My Boards from the account menu and click "Create Board". Give it a name and description — something like "Mediterranean Housing References" or "Thesis: Adaptive Reuse in Industrial Buildings".
Add projects
When viewing a project, click the save icon to add it to any board. Search results make this easy — find what you need, save what matters, keep searching.
Share with anyone
Every board has a public link. Share it with your students, your studio group, or your colleagues. Anyone with the link can browse the board — no account needed.
Suggest a project
Can't find a project you need? Use the Suggest button. We'll analyze it and add it to the database so you can save it to your boards and share it with your students or fellow architects.
For professors
Create a board for each course, assignment, or class. Add a description if needed. Share the link on your course platform. Students can browse your curated references instantly, and save the board to their own library to revisit anytime — even after they graduate.
Attribution & sources
Every project on ArchiRef credits its architect and links directly to the original source. Images are displayed via direct links to the architect's own website — we never host copies.
If you're using ArchiRef for academic work, we encourage you to cite both the architect and the source. Each project page provides the information you need for a proper citation.
Need help?
Contact us at founder@archirefstudio.com for any questions.