Websites
A website for an architect: projects, fees and permits
An architect's site shows projects with verifiable data, place, year, square metres, stage, and says how a commission starts. Fees, professional register, client consent and real blocks.
A website for an architect works when every project opens with four values: place, year, floor area and the stage reached, meaning concept, building permit or site supervision. Without those values the portfolio is decoration; with them the visitor knows whether the practice does the work they need.
Someone looking for an architect arrives through word of mouth or a local search. Either way they compare three practices in half an hour: they look at the photos, look for the word «fees», check the professional register. If one of the three is missing, the practice drops off the list.
The pages a practice actually uses
| Page | What it must contain |
|---|---|
| Home | One lead project, three types of commission, direct contact |
| Projects | Filter by type (housing, offices, interiors, restoration) and by stage |
| Project | 10 photos, readable drawings, place, year, square metres, stage, client if authorised |
| Services | What you do and do not do, standard stages and timelines |
| Fees | How the fee is calculated, what is included, what is separate |
| Practice | People with name, role and register number |
| Contact | Form with project type, place, square metres, timing |
| Privacy | Notice, use of project photos, retention of quotations |
A project is a case, not a photo
A complete case answers five questions: what was there before, what you changed, why, under which constraints, how it ended. Drawings matter: a scaled plan that reads on a phone is worth more than ten renders. Publish the plan as SVG or as a vector image with a caption, and offer the PDF only on request: a 40 MB PDF does not open and does not get indexed.
Before and after from the same viewpoint: if the second shot comes from another angle, there is no comparison. If the project is ongoing, state the stage; renders presented as finished work are the fastest way to lose an informed client.
Fees: no binding minimums since 2012
Decree Law 24 January 2012 no. 1, Article 9, abolished binding minimum fees; Ministerial Decree 140/2012 sets the parameters for calculating a fee, not an imposed price. On a site that means two things: you can publish a range or a «from» figure, but you must explain the variables, meaning area, stage, complexity and permits.
- Percentage of construction cost or a lump sum: state which one you use.
- Separate stages: feasibility study, detailed design, site supervision, cadastral filings.
- Excluded costs: municipal charges, filing fees, consultants, renders.
- Timing: a stage does not start until the deposit arrives and the site data exists.
- What is not included: furniture and site safety coordination, unless the contract says so.
Register, permits and liability
The professional title must be declared: register, province, number, section. For building permits the reference is Presidential Decree 380/2001, the consolidated building act, which separates free building activity, notification, SCIA and building permit. A site promising «permits in a week» without naming the procedure is selling smoke: the counter sets the timeline, not the practice.
Photos of private interiors need the client's consent: the GDPR (Regulation EU 2016/679, Article 6) requires a legal basis and Article 13 the notice. Publishing the address of a private house is data no client asked to share; the municipality is enough to explain the context.
Structured data: ProfessionalService and CreativeWork
The JSON-LD uses ProfessionalService for the practice (name, address, areaServed, priceRange, sameAs to the register and social profiles) and CreativeWork for each project (name, dateCreated, locationCreated, creator, image). schema.org has no «Architect» type: additionalType declares the profession. Do not expect a special box: this data helps describe the practice, not decorate the result. The method is in how to add schema markup.
curl "https://ui.eneawork.it/api/blocks/category/stats?limit=200" | jq '.category.count, (.blocks | length)'Blocks from the catalogue
Three records and one category. Stats 01 from shadcn-ui-blocks is the number band for the practice: years active, projects, square metres handled. Gallery 01 from Shadcn Space is the grid for project photos. Hero 01 from shadcn-ui-blocks carries the first screen with a lead project. The hero category holds 51 of them, all needing work to fit a single practice.
The limitation to state up front
The blocks are React and Tailwind: there is no permit management, no link to the municipal portal, no automatic fee calculation. The catalogue covers the interface; the professional signs the paperwork. On WordPress these blocks do not install as they are: they work as a structural reference. Previews are free, the full code sits in the Pro part.
Cost and timing
A six-page site with ten documented projects sits in the low thousands of euro; the real work is selecting and writing the cases, which no template does for you. The recurring cost is project maintenance: if every new building needs a quote, the portfolio stays stuck in last year. The full picture is in what a website costs.
For the portfolio structure read blocks for a portfolio, for the agency versus DIY comparison agency or DIY, for a nearby case a website for a craftsman. If the practice does not appear in local searches, the site alone brings no commissions: get the site indexed by Google.
Frequently asked questions
What should an architect's website have?
Projects with place, year, area and stage, readable drawings, a services page and a fees page explaining how the fee is calculated. Then the register details, the people in the practice and a contact form with project type, place and square metres.
Can I publish fees on the website?
Yes. Binding minimum fees ended in 2012 and the fee is calculated on the parameters of Ministerial Decree 140/2012. A range with the variables explained is more useful than a silence that pushes the client away.
Do I need the client's consent for project photos?
Yes, for private interiors. The GDPR requires a legal basis and the notice. You can show the project without the exact address: the municipality and the type of work are enough to tell the story.
Should drawings be PDFs?
No, at least not only. An SVG plan or an image with a caption reads on a phone and gets indexed; the PDF stays as a download on request for anyone who needs the dimensions.
What does an architecture practice website cost?
A few thousand euro for six pages with ten documented projects. The heavy line is writing the cases and selecting the images, not code; ask for projects you can edit yourself.