Noteworthy Architectural Websites?
March 10, 2005 11:14 AM   Subscribe

What well designed architects' websites would you recommend?

I am about to design a new website for our firm, and would like to have some cool / interesting examples to steal from. Standards compliant / XHTML-based / minimalistic designs preferred, as I plan to use a CMS (Typo3, probly) and they've already tried a flash based site with less than stellar results.
posted by signal to Computers & Internet (9 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
It's not an architecture firm, but I (an admitted SimCity lover) was recently blown away by Turner Construction Company's TurnerCity website.

If the firm has already built several buildings, the idea could easily be applied to their site.
posted by saladin at 11:23 AM on March 10, 2005


I used to really like the behemoth HOK's site 4 or so years ago, but now it's not very good and only works in Internet Explorer, which is pretty much inexcusable these days. Unfortunately their site isn't in the Wayback Machine.
posted by zsazsa at 11:50 AM on March 10, 2005


I suggest asking the archinect forums also.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 12:33 PM on March 10, 2005




Response by poster: Thanks for the links guys, especially the archinet ones.

Question: Why are so many architect's sites done in flash and with such horrible, cryptic navigation? You'd think architects would appreciate simple, standards based accesible sites.

Still looking for links to well designed HTML sites.
posted by signal at 2:42 PM on March 10, 2005




Forgot my favorite:

kavamassiharchitects.com
posted by quadog at 3:28 PM on March 10, 2005


I'm always perplexed by the architecture industry's love affair with bizarre flash navigation and fullscreen pop-up windows (oh, how i hate those).

Nevertheless, here's my short list. Some still use flash for navigation but are at least modest in its use (and could be replaced with some creative css).

http://www.sasaki.com
http://www.hillier.com/home/
http://www.perkinswill.com/about/vision.aspx
http://www.suyamapetersondeguchi.com/

I think your best bet is to find good photography websites instead as they seem to share similar requirements with architecture websites (large photos, portfolio organization, minimal text).
posted by junesix at 5:14 PM on March 10, 2005


signal, that has always bothered me as well. I think a lot of architects and design practitioners' sites suffer from being over-designed. It's an easy trap to fall into when you appreciate the craft and begin to descend into reflexivity and design for design's sake. This doesn't apply to everyone; there are great and beautiful exceptions to cite. And, of course, it's a matter of taste (some of those over-designed sites are fascinating as "art" objects) as well as what the end goals of the site really are (attracting a certain kind of clientele, prestige w/ ones' peers, awards, whatever). Personally, I don't think cool, complexity, and clarity as well as ease-of-use need to be in competition or contradiction; for instance, I think many firms could learn from some of the better of the school sites; e.g. the Bartlett site (which I adore). There's a verifiable and interesting tension there for sure, thanks for getting me to think some more about it again.
posted by safetyfork at 7:39 AM on March 11, 2005


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