Websites for architects and design studios.
Your portfolio is your offer. If it presents projects as a grid of thumbnails like every other studio, clients compare you on price alone. I build websites that show a project the way it is experienced, so the conversation is about value, not discounts.
Why a grid portfolio lowers your fee
A grid of thumbnails makes everyone equal: the same layout, the same renders, the same navigation. The client has nothing to tell you apart except the price. The alternative looks like this:
- One project, one story - the site context, the decisions, sections, materials, the result. What separates an architect from a catalogue.
- Motion instead of stills - a fly-through of an interior or a scroll-video shows scale and light better than twenty renders.
- Quiet typography - in this field the website should step back and let the project stay. Fewer effects, more air.
- A path to a conversation - at the end of each project, one question and a tappable number, so interest does not end with a closed tab.
Studios that enter competitions or work abroad need this in more than one language. Juries, overseas clients and editors of design publications all arrive at the same portfolio.
What a cinematic site changes
Architecture is experienced in movement: approach, threshold, light across a wall. A cinematic site can carry that sequence. These elements change the quality of the enquiries you receive:
- Projects as full case studies - scope, area, year, stage, photos and drawings. Material that attracts clients with a similar brief.
- Services written out - concept, planning and building permit design, technical drawings, interiors, site supervision: each separately, because clients search for a specific stage.
- A 3D fly-through or scroll-video - where it makes sense, built from your existing model or prepared by me.
- A second language - competitions, international clients, industry publications.
- Performance despite heavy images - high-resolution renders can kill a website. Compression, modern image formats and loading on demand keep Lighthouse at 90+.
- Visibility in Google and AI - structured data for the studio, project descriptions and an FAQ written to be quoted by AI assistants.
- A configurator (web application layer) - for studios that sell repeatable products such as modular houses or kitchens: a tool where the client picks options and sees the result in 3D.
Three moments that win the brief
- The threshold. A private client opens your latest house and the camera moves through the front door, across the living room and out to the terrace as they scroll. In twenty seconds they understand the proportions and the light in a way no render grid could explain.
- The recognised brief. A client planning a similar villa reads your case study from site context to finished interior and thinks, "they have solved my problem before". The conversation starts from trust, not from a fee comparison.
- The end of the story. After the last photograph of the project there is one question, "Planning something similar?", and a number to tap. Interest turns into a call while it is still warm.
Matching work
There is no architecture studio case study in the portfolio yet. These are the closest projects:
- BRYŁA (in Polish) - an architecture studio concept by REELM with a fly-through of a house controlled by scroll. A working website, not a screenshot. Concepts are fictional brands built from scratch.
- AURUM Residence - a live concept for a developer with an interactive 3D tower in a living city district, a floor picker and a day-night slider.
More on the approach: immersive websites.
How we work
- 1. Brief - a short call about the studio, the projects you want more of and the material you have: models, renders, photos, drawings.
- 2. Free concept - a visual direction, usually with a moving preview, approved before any code is written.
- 3. Build - project stories, services, fly-through and contact path on a live preview link you can follow at every step.
- 4. Audit - performance with heavy imagery on real phones, accessibility, GDPR, structured data.
- 5. Launch and care - domain, hosting, handover of code and accounts, and a simple way to add new projects.
Questions studios ask
We have 3D models from Revit or ArchiCAD. Can they be used on the website?
Usually yes. The model needs to be simplified and prepared for the browser, but it can start from what you already have. Alternatively, the fly-through can be a video driven by scroll, which is lighter and works everywhere.
How much does a website like this cost?
Every project is quoted individually. A portfolio with well-made case studies is a different job from a site with an interactive 3D fly-through. Send two sentences about the studio and you get a free concept direction and a quote within 24 hours.
Do we need finished photos and renders?
That is the easiest route, but I can also prepare the visual material: framing, retouching, video and generated imagery in your studio's aesthetic.
Will heavy visualisations make the site slow?
Not if someone takes care of it. Optimising images and 3D models is concrete, measurable work, and I share the Lighthouse results before handover.
Can we add new projects ourselves?
Yes. I set it up so that adding a new project does not require a developer.
Show the space, not the thumbnail.
Tell me about the studio in two sentences. You get a free concept direction and a quote within 24 hours. Every project is quoted individually.