How Architects can Optimize their Websites

by Madison Lockwood

Published on this site: September 13th, 2006 - See more articles from this month

Architectural firms with any sense of marketing at all have long used the internet as a portfolio. Both commercial and residential architectural firms publish beautiful photographs of their work, many of them employing professional photographers in order to maximize impact. Architects that
specialize in restoration projects will often post pictures of the project before and after their work as been done. For most established architectural firms, this is standard fare.

A website can also be utilized to emphasize an architect's problem solving skills. Spatial challenges and structural complexities can be illustrated both though the use of photographs and drawings. Blueprints are too detailed, but simplified versions of drawings can be very helpful to the browser with a development or redevelopment project.

Building Revitalization - an Illustrated Guide

Many towns and cities are putting public funds into development projects that maintain the traditional look of an old downtown area while refurbishing the structures that are there. Often this means maintaining a building façade and constructing a new facility behind it. Architects will also often find themselves faced with unstable brick shells of older structures that are being converted from warehouse or mill to condominiums or offices. The challenge with these scenarios is twofold: reinforcing unstable walls that are a century or more old, and constructing modern facilities within them.

Architects that specialize in this sort of urban redevelopment will sometimes go into substantial detail describing the problems that they faced and the methods they devised to solve those problems. A description of this sort can be a valuable sales tool, because it is a method of illustrating structural creativity. Meeting modern codes in old buildings can be a challenge. Architects can illustrate a successful history of innovative problem solving in this area on a website. Photos and copy can explain the problem and the solution.

New Homes and Renewed Homes

High end residential architects use their websites to provide elegant photographic displays of past projects. Homes with open ended budgets can often turn into a tour de force for an architect who has a client looking for creativity. But architects who have done remodeling jobs on older homes, working with a limited budget, often use the web to greater effect. Showing an unadorned, older rectangular house in a "before" picture and the same home with a deck, a small addition and a lot more glass in an "after" picture can be an effective sales tool as well. Some architects - with permission from the homeowner - will be frank about financial limitations and how they achieved quality design and construction within those parameters.

People of means who are constructing new homes or second, vacation homes often shop for a "name" architect. Firms that have designed elaborate residences will often identify them by name and location. Firms that wish to stress their remodeling skills tend to focus on realigning rooms, clever use of stale space (such as summer kitchens or butler's pantries) and retaining a home's historical look while modernizing its functionality.

Here again drawings can be helpful, especially if there are additions that involve two levels or incorporation of an unused attic into living space. Drawings can illustrate how the house was used when originally designed and how that usage has been realigned.

The Internet - An Optimum Sales Tool for Architects

Architects have portfolios just as do fine artists. With a good website, an architectural firm can showcase its best work with photos and video as well as drawings. The internet can provide a complete picture of a successfully executed project.

Madison Lockwood - is a customer relations associate for http://www.apollohosting.com. As a small business consultant, she helps prospective clients understand how a website may benefit them both personally and professionally. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting, ecommerce hosting, & vps hosting to a wide range of customers.