What the best architecture websites get right
Six things separate a practice website that gets briefed from one that only gets admired. None of them is the typeface.
The eight practices below each do at least one of these well enough to borrow. They were chosen for what they publish, not for how many commissions they win.
- Project context: the brief, the constraint and the response, written next to the photographs.
- A service split that matches the way people buy: a new house, an alteration, an interior, a development.
- Fee clarity, which can be an explanation of how you charge rather than a number.
- Proof attached to the work: awards, publications and named client comments on the projects they came from.
- One obvious next step, described so a stranger knows what happens after they press it.
- Pages that load quickly on a phone, because an image-heavy portfolio is the easiest kind of site to make slow.
Invilla and Archier: say how the fee works before the call
Invilla’s homepage sends a visitor down one of three paths immediately: architectural design, interior design or developments. The fixed-fee approach is explained rather than hidden, and a four-step project estimator gives an owner a genuine range before anyone picks up the phone. There is still a plain contact route for people who are not ready to be estimated. An owner can work out which service they need and what the next step gives them, in about a minute.
Archier gives its prefab offering a page of its own, with the process set out, the fee questions answered and an enquiry sequence that asks about bedrooms, bathrooms, location and budget. The fee explanation separates a fixed fee from a percentage of construction cost. A defined service earns a defined explanation, and the enquiry then arrives with the outline of a brief already in it.
You do not need a calculator to get this benefit. A paragraph saying what the first stage costs, how long it takes and what the client walks away with does most of the same job. Take the form fields only if you will use the answers. Copying Archier’s questions into a heritage advisory practice produces a longer form and no better brief.
Nielsen Jenkins and Lachlan Shepherd: give the photographs a reason
Nielsen Jenkins writes the site into the project. The Mt Coot-Tha House entry names the sloping bushland block and its bushfire exposure. The East Brisbane entry explains which parts of a workers cottage were kept and how the old and new rooms sit together. Builder, landscaping and photography credits sit with the work, and awards and publications are linked from the project rather than filed on a separate page. An owner with a difficult block has something to talk to you about beyond liking the look.
Lachlan Shepherd Architects does the same thing in fewer words. The Bones House page describes an alteration to an existing home near Bells Beach, the decision to reuse most of the footprint and the materials chosen for the setting. A short details block gives the size, the completion date and the builder. That is the model for a studio that will never write an essay per project: state the starting condition, say what was kept and what changed, then list the facts.
None of this needs an editor on staff. At practical completion, ask the project architect two questions. What made this site difficult, and which decision resolved it? Write the answer down that week, while everybody still remembers. Those two paragraphs will outperform a page of adjectives about craft and timelessness.
Austin Maynard and Benn+Penna: attach the philosophy to a house
Austin Maynard Architects states a position on people and the environment on the homepage, then introduces projects through what the occupants needed. The Clarke summary opens with a family whose existing home no longer suited their work and their teenagers. Projects carry type labels, including single residential and multi-residential. A stated philosophy is easy to skim past until the next thing a visitor reads is a household problem it solved.
Benn+Penna puts attributed client comments on the Balmain Rock project page, beside the architectural commentary about the house. The client is talking about living in the rooms you are looking at. That connection does the work: an endorsement fixed to a specific building counts as evidence, while the same words in an anonymous testimonials slider count as decoration.
Do the same with every broad claim on your own site. If you say you collaborate, name one decision the client made. If you say you work with restraint, show what you chose to keep. Get written permission before publishing a client’s words, and keep the attribution accurate.
Turn this into an architect website design brief
Name the problem before you name the reference. If owners cannot work out what you charge, study the fee explanations. If the work looks good and the enquiries are wrong, fix the project context and the service split. If referred clients arrive not knowing who they will be working with, move the people and the first meeting somewhere they can be found.
Then write an acceptance test for whoever builds it. A first-time visitor should be able to name your project types, read one story like their own, describe the first step and find the right person to contact. Ask for a prototype using your real content, sit somebody from outside the studio in front of it, and watch where they stall. You are testing whether the site can be understood, not whether they like the colours.
Keep performance in its own line of the scope. An architecture portfolio website is the easiest kind of site to make slow, and image handling is usually where it happens. Ask the supplier what they will measure on a real project page, what they intend to change and how they will show you the result afterwards.
Frequently asked questions
What makes a good architecture firm website? It explains the practice to somebody who has never commissioned a building. The photography earns attention, and the writing around it decides whether a visitor can see their own project in your work, follow your process and know what the first stage costs.
Should an architecture portfolio website publish fees? It should explain how fees are set and what the first stage includes, which is not the same as posting a price list. If you publish a range or an estimate, say what it assumes and where it stops applying.
How many projects should an architect’s website show? Enough to give each service two or three comparable examples. Eight projects written up properly, with the brief and the constraints, will win more work than thirty galleries with captions.
Where to start this month
- Pick two of the sites above and write down the single thing you are taking from each. That is the start of your brief.
- Rewrite one finished project with the brief, the constraint, the design response and the collaborator credits. Clear the image and client permissions while you are there.
- Write the paragraph that explains your first stage: what it costs, how long it takes and what the client receives at the end of it.
- Move your awards, publications and client comments onto the projects they came from.
- Sit somebody outside the studio in front of the site, give them four tasks and watch. Fix whatever made them stop.