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On behalf of the entire ArchDaily team, we would like to thank you for your continued support and for making 2020 our best year so far! We are now reaching more architects around the world and inspiring them in the creation of better built environments. With more than 5500 different projects published during the year, our curators are excited to share this collection of the 100 most visited projects of 2020. This selection represents the best content created and shared by the ArchDaily community over the past 11 months.

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Humans have used mirrors since as early as 600 BCE, employing highly polished obsidian as a basic reflective surface. Over time, people began to use small pieces of gold, silver, and aluminum in a similar manner, both for their reflective properties and for decoration. By the 1^st century CE, people had started using glass to make mirrors, but it was only during the European Renaissance that Venetian manufacturers began making mirrors by applying metallic backings to glass sheets, remaining the most common general method of mirror manufacturing today. Since then, mirrors have continued to play both a decorative and functional role in architecture, serving a clean, modern aesthetic despite its ancient origins. Below, we investigate how mirrors are made, provide a brief history of mirrors in architecture, and offer several tips for architects looking to use mirrors in their designs.

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Michelangelo's sculptures. The ancient Greek temples. Castle interiors and palaces. The iconic Barcelona Pavilion of Mies van der Rohe. When we approach the history of architecture and sculpture, it is inevitable that we speak of marble. Originating from a chemical reaction in limestone when exposed to high pressures and temperatures for thousands of years, this notable material is a metamorphic rock generally found in regions where volcanic activity has occurred. Its extraction, by itself, is already a spectacle.

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More than 5.000 architecture projects were published in ArchDaily this year.  Year after year, we curate hundreds of residential projects, and as we know our readers love houses, we compiled a selection of the most visited residential projects published on the site. 

Set in various locations around the world, in urban, rural, mountain and beach landscapes; a variety of structural designs, from traditional masonry to the most technological prefabricated systems; from small dwellings to large houses and materials such as concrete, wood, and bricks as the most used. We also found their design and typology solutions were very much aligned with their specific settings and all of them share a strong dialogue between the house and nature, whether it is its direct surroundings or the introduction of green into a more condensed urban setting. 

This selection of 50 houses highlights the most visited examples during these twelve months and, according to our readers, were the most attractive in innovation, construction techniques, and design challenges. Check them out below:

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With a mission to provide tools and inspiration to improve the quality of life in our built environment, ArchDaily curators constantly track and share with our audience the best "built projects" in the world. In order to celebrate these achievements and thank our readers for actively participating in our community, we selected the 50 best architectural works published during 2019.

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