built99 reframes indian architecture with designboom and ArchDaily

designboom and archdaily editors come together for built99

Built99 is an architectural platform and curated registry founded to reposition Indian and Global South practices within the global design conversation, operating across India with an international editorial outlook. Conceived as a permanence-led archive rather than a directory, Built99 documents architectural work through ideas, ethics, and built proof, responding to a long-standing lack of sustained global visibility for the region’s practices.

Launching its first major selection cycle in 2026, the initiative brings together editors from designboom and ArchDaily to identify 99 practitioners whose work demonstrates long-term relevance, cultural depth, and intellectual rigor, setting out to build a reference framework that can endure beyond trends.

Built99 is an architectural platform and curated registry founded to reposition Indian and Global South practices within the global design conversation | all images courtesy of Built99

placing regional practices into active dialogue

At its core, Built99 was created to address a structural absence: despite decades of spatial intelligence, ethical experimentation, and contextual design, architecture from India and the Global South has often circulated without long-term critical framing. Built99 positions itself as a cultural institution rather than a promotional platform, designed to place regional practices into active dialogue with international architectural discourse. By combining editorial scrutiny with archival intent, the platform reframes visibility as something earned through clarity and defensible ideas, rather than popularity or spectacle.

The Built99 model is anchored in a rigorous documentation framework that evaluates architecture through spatial clarity, cultural context, and ethical position. Each selected studio is presented not as a portfolio snapshot but as a clearly articulated thesis, examining how ideas translate into built form over time. This approach allows Built99 to function as a long-term intellectual record, creating a body of work that can be referenced, studied, and situated within broader global narratives, while resisting the rapid churn typical of digital platforms.

conceived as a permanence-led archive rather than a directory, Built99 documents architectural work through ideas and ethics

built99 offers year-round editorial programming

A defining aspect of Built99 is its editorial collaboration with the global platforms designboom and ArchDaily, whose editors will jointly select the inaugural cohort of 99 practitioners. This curatorial process ensures international credibility while maintaining a critical lens rooted in context rather than trend. For selected studios, the platform offers year-round editorial programming, including interviews, studio films, and curated conversations that extend beyond announcement-driven exposure and into sustained cultural engagement.

The initiative culminates in the Built99 Coffee Table Book, scheduled for release in November 2026 alongside the platform’s flagship event. The publication will document the selected practices as a collective benchmark, positioning their work within a shared architectural moment while preserving individual methodologies. In parallel, each practice receives a permanent digital dossier, ensuring that their contributions remain accessible as part of an evolving archival ecosystem.

a defining aspect of Built99 is its editorial collaboration with the global platforms designboom and ArchDaily, whose editors will jointly select the inaugural cohort of 99 practitioners

While Built99 emphasizes permanence over promotion, its visibility strategy is deliberately global. Selected practitioners based in India gain dedicated exposure through Forbes India, while international visibility is driven through designboom and ArchDaily. This dual-channel approach reinforces the platform’s ambition to connect regional architectural intelligence with a wider professional and cultural audience, without diluting its editorial standards.

Built99 ultimately defines itself through restraint and clarity, setting a curated bar for architectural practice that values depth over noise. Framed by the idea that “ideas are built, then they travel,” the platform argues for architecture that can be defended intellectually and ethically over time. In doing so, Built 99 positions itself not as a momentary spotlight, but as a lasting reference point for practices shaping the future of architecture from the Global South outward.