Websites for architecture practices
An architecture practice is judged on its projects, not on its arguments. We design sites where the gallery carries the site, where every project has its own page, and where the layout never competes with the images.
Noor Studio Agency is a studio based in Rabat. We delivered the website for Noor Architect, an architecture and interior design studio, built around real project photography.
Why a portfolio template underserves visual work
Someone looking for an architect opens three or four sites in the same hour. They do not read them: they scroll. The question being settled is not your method, it is “does this practice do the kind of work I want for my project?”
Portfolio templates are sold on a screenshot, made with photographs chosen to suit the template. Your projects were not photographed to suit a template, and the mismatch shows from the first upload.
- Automatic cropping cuts the subject. A vertical enfilade, a joinery detail, a low-angle shot: those are precisely the images lost to an imposed grid.
- Hierarchy disappears. Nine equal thumbnails treat a delivered project and an unbuilt study as objects of equal weight.
- Effects draw attention. Hover filters, zooms, staggered reveals: anything that draws attention on an architectural photograph draws it away from the photograph.
- The weight budget is already spent. A generic template loads libraries you use none of, on a site where every page is a sequence of high-resolution images.
What we hear before we start
The same reservations come up on every first call. They are fair, and here is how we answer them.
- “Our clients come by word of mouth.” Often true, and the site serves exactly that circuit: the person you were recommended to will check your work before calling. What they find decides the call.
- “We do not have time to choose the projects.” It is the one decision we cannot take for you, and the most important: it defines the work you will be asked for next. We frame it with you.
- “Our photographs belong to the photographer.” Often they do — a commission for a shoot does not always cover online publication. It is settled in one line of the photographer’s quote, and better discovered now.
- “We will need to add projects ourselves.” That is expected. The gallery is built so a new project can be added without reopening the layout question.
Our approach
We invert the usual hierarchy of a showcase site: the project gallery becomes the backbone, and the copy shrinks to whatever helps make sense of each project.
The test is simple, and it is the one we apply: a visitor should be able to judge the quality of the practice in three scrolls, without reading a line.
Your existing identity is taken as-is and extended into a layout that steps back — which is what we did for Noor Architect, whose black, white and bronze monogram holds the structure together while everything else lets the photography occupy the space.
The sequence is the same on every project: five stages, set out in full on the how a project runs page.
What the website includes
The exact scope is settled on the first call. A practice website delivered by the studio generally includes:
- A gallery that carries the site, in a format that lets the images breathe and ranks your projects instead of lining them up.
- A page per project, each with its own address: the one people send in a message, the one a magazine cites, and the only one that can appear in a search for a specific kind of project.
- A layout drawn for your framings — vertical ones included — rather than a grid that centre-crops whatever does not fit.
- Drawings handled as images: plans and sections exported cleanly, legible on a phone.
- Credits — photographer, team, contractors — because it is professional courtesy and it earns you links from the sites of the people you credit.
- Optimised images — several widths per photograph, a modern format and dimensions written in — so an image-heavy site stays fast.
- A handover session, and your accounts in your name.
The proof, live
Noor Architect had a black, white and bronze monogram identity and a body of real photography. What it needed was a site where the work speaks first, with a layout that never competes with the images.
The site is live and presents the studio’s work in a format where each new project can be added without reopening the layout question.
Frequently asked questions
How many projects should be shown?
Enough to establish a way of working, not so many that it dilutes. Six solid projects, all of the kind of work you want more of, beat twenty that show you take anything. A project you are not proud of attracts clients who want that project.
Can unbuilt projects be shown?
Yes, as long as it is stated. A study, a competition entry or a render presented without a label suggests the practice built something it did not. Labelled as such, they show intent and drawing ability, which is useful for a young practice.
Is an English version needed?
It depends who you want to hear from. For local clients, French is often enough. As soon as you are aiming at foreign owners, hospitality projects or international editorial coverage, an English version with its own address per page becomes useful.
Do you work with interior architects and designers too?
Yes. The reasoning is identical wherever the trade sells on images: the gallery carries the site, the project page does the commercial work, and the copy only comes afterwards. The Noor Architect project covered both architecture and interior design.
Let’s talk about your practice
The first question is always the same: which projects to show. We frame it with you on a thirty-minute call, before talking about layout or budget.