Terms of Service

1 Acceptance of Terms

By creating an account, visiting any page, or otherwise using Architectena, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy and Community Guidelines. If you do not agree, you may not use the platform.

2 Description of Service

Architectena is a professional community platform for architects, architecture students, and design professionals. Core use of the platform is free; some features are part of a paid plan, described in section 13 and in the Subscription Terms. The platform provides the following features:

• Public profile and personal portfolio
• Posts and discussion feed
• Project showcases
• Job listings and applications
• Groups for collaboration and conversation
• Hall — a curated reference of notable architects and buildings
• Q&A — peer questions and answers on architecture and design
• Situ — locations and places of architectural interest
• Office pages and company profiles
• Résumé builder and recruiter tools
• Hall — featured architectural works and recognized architects
• Direct messaging between members

Most features are available at no charge. Some capabilities, and higher usage limits, require a paid plan or an add-on — see section 13 (Paid plans, trial, and refunds) and the Subscription Terms, which form part of these Terms. We may change which features are paid, and may add, modify, or discontinue features; where a change materially reduces what a paid plan provides, we will give notice as described in section 17.

3 Eligibility

You must be at least 16 years of age to create an account on Architectena. By signing up, you represent that you meet this requirement. Each individual is permitted one account — duplicate or multiple accounts created by the same person may be suspended or removed.

4 Account registration and security

You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information when creating an account and to keep that information up to date. You are solely responsible for safeguarding your password and for any activity that occurs under your account.

If you suspect unauthorised access to your account, you must notify us immediately at info@architectena.com. We strongly recommend enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) for additional protection.

5 User content

You retain full ownership of the content you upload or post to Architectena — including text, images, project files, and any other material ("User Content"). By submitting User Content, you grant Architectena a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, display, distribute, format, resize, and otherwise process that content as needed to operate the platform and provide the service to you and other users.

You warrant that you own or have all necessary rights, permissions, and licenses to the content you post, and that your content does not infringe the intellectual property, privacy, or other rights of any third party.

6 Prohibited conduct

You agree not to:

• Harass, threaten, or intimidate other users; engage in hate speech, doxxing, or targeted abuse
• Spam the platform, scrape or harvest data, create fake or sockpuppet accounts
• Upload content you do not own or have rights to share, including portfolio work that is not yours
• Post illegal content, content advocating violence, or content that violates applicable law
• Impersonate another person, business, or organisation
• Circumvent rate limits, moderation tools, account suspensions, or any other security or enforcement mechanism
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive the source code of the platform
• Use the platform to distribute malware, viruses, or other harmful code

7 Content moderation and removal

We reserve the right to remove content, suspend accounts, or terminate access to the platform if we determine, in our reasonable judgement, that a user has violated these Terms or our Community Guidelines. For most violations we will provide notice and an opportunity to respond; for severe cases — including illegal content, doxxing, or coordinated abuse — we may act immediately and without prior notice.

If you believe enforcement action was taken in error, you can appeal. If your account is suspended, an appeal form is shown to you when you sign in — that is the route to use, and you may submit one appeal per suspension while the suspension is still in effect. We aim to decide appeals within 14 days.

For a formal warning, you can acknowledge or dispute it from your account's warnings page. For anything else — including a decision about content that was removed — email info@architectena.com and tell us what was actioned and why you think it was wrong.

One measure works differently and you should know it exists: in a small number of cases — typically persistent spam or evasion — we reduce the reach of an account's content so that it stays visible to its author and not to others, without a notice. We use it where telling the account would simply prompt a new one, and it is reviewable on the same appeal route as anything else: if you believe your reach has been limited, ask us and we will tell you.

8 Intellectual property

The Architectena name, logo, brand identity, software, design system, and all related materials are the property of Architectena and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. You may not copy, modify, distribute, or use any of these materials without our prior written permission.

9 Third-party services

Architectena relies on third-party providers to operate the platform — including Cloudflare (network, CDN, and object storage for uploaded files), Hetzner (hosting), Resend (transactional email), Sentry (error monitoring), Dodo Payments (payment processing, as Merchant of Record), Google (optional sign-in, and web fonts served on our pages), and OpenStreetMap (maps and address lookup when you pin a location). Their respective terms of service and privacy policies apply to the data they process. The Privacy Policy lists what each one receives.

10 Privacy

Our handling of your personal data is described in our Privacy Policy, which forms an integral part of these Terms.

11 Copyright complaints

If you believe content on Architectena infringes your copyright, please review and follow the procedure described in our Copyright Policy.

12 Termination

Before you go, you can download a copy of your data from Settings → Your data, as JSON or as a printable PDF, or have it emailed to you. It covers your profile, résumé, posts, projects, job listings and applications, the groups and offices you run, your follows and followers, and the messages you have sent. It is a record of your content rather than a copy of the original image and document files, so download anything you want to keep from the pages themselves as well. Deletion does not produce an archive for you, so export first. Messages in an end-to-end encrypted thread export as ciphertext, because we hold no key for them.

You may delete your account via Settings → Account → Danger Zone. Deletion is immediate and permanent: your profile and your uploaded files are removed as part of the request, and there is no recovery period. Two exceptions we want you to know about before you press it. First, if you manage an office you cannot delete your account until the office is transferred or removed, because deleting it would take the office and its records with you. Second, a small number of records are kept after deletion where we are required to or need them to defend a claim — payment and tax records, and moderation and security audit logs — and analytics rows are retained in de-identified form, with your account no longer attached to them. The Privacy Policy sets out each of these and how long they are kept. If you want a copy of your data, export it first: Settings → Account → Download my data.

We may suspend or terminate your account if you violate these Terms or Community Guidelines. Except in severe cases, we will provide reasonable notice and an opportunity to respond before terminating.

13 Paid plans, trial, and refunds

Architectena is free to use. Some features are part of a paid plan or a one-time add-on. Payments are processed by Dodo Payments, which acts as Merchant of Record for the transaction.

Tax. Prices are shown excluding any sales tax, VAT or equivalent. Because Dodo Payments is the Merchant of Record, it determines, collects and remits whatever tax your country requires, and the amount appears at checkout before you pay. Your receipt comes from Dodo, not from us.

Price changes. We may change a plan's price. A change never applies to a period you have already paid for: we will tell you at least 30 days before it takes effect, and the new price applies from your next renewal, so you can cancel first if you would rather not accept it. Continuing after that date is acceptance of the new price.

Free trial. Recurring plans begin with a 3-day free trial. A payment method is required, but nothing is charged during the trial. Cancel before it ends and you are not charged at all. The free trial is available once per plan.

Renewal and cancellation. Plans renew automatically at the end of each period until you cancel. Cancelling stops the next charge; access continues to the end of the period you have already paid for.

Refunds. Because the free trial lets you use the full plan at no cost before any money changes hands, paid periods are non-refundable. The exception is our own error — for example, a payment that succeeded while the plan failed to activate, or an outage that prevented you from using what you paid for. In those cases we fix the activation and extend your time to cover the gap, or refund in full if we cannot. Where a refund or chargeback is processed for any reason, the plan it paid for ends and the account returns to Free.

Nothing here limits rights you have under consumer law in your country that cannot be waived by agreement.

The full Subscription Terms set out plan limits, what happens when a plan lapses, and how add-ons work. They form part of these Terms, and you accept them when you subscribe.

14 Disclaimers

The platform is provided on an "as-is" and "as-available" basis without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied. We do not warrant that the platform will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure, or that any content posted by users is accurate, complete, or reliable.

15 Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Architectena and its operator shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising out of or in connection with your use of the platform. Our total aggregate liability for any claim relating to the platform shall not exceed the total amount you have paid to Architectena in the twelve months preceding the claim, or USD 100, whichever is greater.

16 Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold Architectena, its operator, and its third-party providers harmless from any claims, damages, losses, or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your User Content, your use of the platform, or your violation of these Terms.

17 Modifications to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. For material changes that affect your rights, we will give at least 14 days' notice by in-platform banner and/or email before they take effect, except where a change is required sooner by law or is needed to address a security or legal risk — in which case we will give as much notice as we reasonably can. Changes that do not reduce your rights, such as corrections and clarifications, take effect when published. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision. Continued use of the platform after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

18 Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Arab Republic of Egypt, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or your use of the platform shall be brought exclusively in the competent courts of Cairo, Egypt.

Nothing in this clause limits any mandatory consumer-protection rights you may have under the laws of the European Union, the United Kingdom, or your country of residence, where such rights cannot be excluded by contract.

19 General provisions

Survival

Provisions that by their nature should outlast your account do: the licence you granted us for content you have already published and we have already distributed, the disclaimers, the limitation of liability, the indemnity, the no-refund position for periods already charged, and this section. Everything else ends when your account does.

Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, that provision shall be enforced to the maximum extent permissible, and the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.

Force majeure

We are not liable for any failure or delay in performance caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including natural disasters, war, terrorism, pandemic, civil unrest, government action, internet or power outages, or failures of third-party infrastructure providers (hosting, email, content delivery).

Entire agreement

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, Community Guidelines, and Copyright Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Architectena Co. regarding your use of the platform, and supersede any prior or contemporaneous agreements, representations, or understandings — written or oral — relating to that subject.

Language

These Terms are written in English and translated into Arabic for convenience. We work to keep the translation faithful, but if the two versions ever conflict on the meaning of a term, the English version prevails. The same applies to our Privacy Policy, Community Guidelines and Copyright Policy. Nothing in this clause removes a right that the law of your own country gives you in your own language.

Waiver

Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms on a given occasion does not waive that right or provision in the future. No waiver of any term shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or any other term.

Assignment

We may assign or transfer these Terms, in whole or in part, without restriction — including in connection with a merger, acquisition, sale of assets, or by operation of law. You may not assign or transfer your account or any rights under these Terms without our prior written consent. Any assignment in violation of this provision is void.

No third-party beneficiaries

These Terms are for the benefit of you and Architectena only. They do not create any rights or remedies for any third party, including other users you interact with on the platform.

Notices

We may send you notices by email (to the address associated with your account), by posting a banner on the platform, or by any other method permitted by applicable law. You may send formal notices to us at info@architectena.com. Notices are considered delivered when sent (for email) or posted (for banners).