Archikey.com tips and tricks

Getting information

Archikey.com provides two ways for you to get the information you want: Browsing and Searching, both can be used on Buildings and Pictures.

Browsing

When browsing you start out with the entire database of buildings or pictures and you iteratively narrow it down by successively adding filters. This is a great way of navigating if you do not now exactly what you are looking for, or when you are just browsing around for ideas.

Searching

Searching allows you to search for buildings or pictures in a more natural language. It may be less specific or accurate but can be faster as you can type whole sentences at once.

Contributing information

Archikey.com is able to detect whether a value is numeric or textual, this is of great importance when searching for buildings: When searching for numeric values you can specify ranges, for example: a building with a height between 10ft and 100m, see here.

Textual values

Please keep values as succinct as possible, while maintaining proper grammar. While certain keys invite for a descriptive text like 'History' or 'Facts', most fields like 'Architect' and 'Building type' do not need a sentence such as 'This building is designed by Peter Zumthor', just the text 'Peter Zumthor' as the architect will be sufficient.

Numeric values

Archikey recognizes numerical values together with their unit of measure. For example 100ft is recognized as 100 feet and Archikey knows that it roughly corresponds to 30.5 meters. Therefore, when someone adds a building that is 100ft tall, someone searching for Height:30m-31m will find that particular building. That's why it is important to always specify a unit of measure when applicable. Of course, for some numeric values units are not applicable, this is the case with keys like 'Floor count'.

Keynames

When you add new values always try to find a suitable keyname that is already in use. This way information on Archikey.com remains consistent and comparable. If you need to invent a new keyname, please try to find generic terms to use. If the keyname is a specialization of an already existing keyname, like 'Nick name' is for 'Name' or 'Antenna height' is for 'Height', try to keep the base keyname present as a word in the specialized keyname. This way when searching for a specific height, values in 'Antenna height' are also considered.

Uploading pictures

When uploading pictures remember that they don't have to be excellent in all aspects (especially when no other pictures for a building are present). Pictures can have different types of qualities such as descriptive qualities, i.e. conveying a clear image of the building, technical qualities, i.e. showing how the building is constructed, or artistic qualities. A picture with all or any of these qualities is fine for the purpose of submitting it to Archikey.com

Thank you for considering contributing to Archikey.com. If there is anything unclear, don't hesitate to get in touch at info@archikey.com.