An architecture portfolio website that shows the building and the idea, and how to build it

An architecture portfolio website carries more kinds of image than any other: the photograph of the finished building, the plan and the section that explain it, the render of the one not yet built, the sketch that started it. It has to hold them all in one calm frame, sort the work the way a client or a jury thinks about it, and say who the practice is. This is the FolioPage guide for architects, interior and landscape designers, urban designers, visualizers, structural engineers, set, lighting and furniture designers, studios and students on what such a site has to do, how project pages and the portfolio by type work, the practice pages, the templates built for the field, the plan that fits, and how to have it live in an afternoon.

What an architecture website has to do

Whoever opens the site - a client with a plot, a developer, a jury, a journalist, a graduate looking for a studio - asks the same things in the same order: what have they built, how do they think, who are they, and how do I talk to them. The answers live in four places, and the site's job is to keep them one click apart:

• Show the projects, each as a whole: the photographs, the drawings that explain them, the facts (location, size, year, status, client) and a short text about the idea.
• Sort them by type, because a client with a house wants to see houses: residential, public, interiors, landscape, competitions, unbuilt.
• Present the practice: who works there, what it believes, what it has won and where it has been published.
• Open a conversation: a form or an address, and a line about the kind of work the practice is taking on.

A site that does these four things quietly beats one that animates. Architecture clients are used to reading drawings; they will read a well-ordered page.

The pages that earn their place

Architecture is the field where a multi-page site earns its keep, because a practice has more to say than a person. The map:

A sole practitioner or a student can fold Practice and Services into an About page and run everything on one page with the projects behind it. The templates for this category come in both shapes: five one-page sites and three with several pages.

The project page: photograph, plan, idea

The project page is the site. Everything else introduces it. On FolioPage each project is an item in the Portfolio app with its own gallery, and the gallery holds every kind of image the project needs, in the order the story is told:

1. The hero photograph or render, the one frame that says what the building is.
2. The facts as custom fields on the project - location, year, area, client, status - shown beside the images in the template's style.
3. The drawings: site plan, plans, sections, a detail if it matters. Plans upload as SVG on every plan, so the lines stay crisp at any size, or as large PNG and JPEG exports.
4. More photographs, exterior to interior, day to night.
5. The idea, in two or three paragraphs: the constraint, the move, what it made possible.

The project pages come in twenty-four layouts, from a single wide column that lets a section drawing breathe to a tighter editorial spread; nearly every one opens its images full screen in a lightbox, and all of them link to the next and previous project. Change the layout in the app's settings and every project follows.

The portfolio by type

Categories are the practice's own vocabulary: residential, public, workplace, hospitality, landscape, interiors, competitions, unbuilt, or by scale, or by stage. The index shows every project in one grid or list and lets the visitor filter by category without leaving the page, so the developer sees the workplace projects and the couple with a plot sees the houses.

Thirty index layouts are available. Several were drawn for exactly this field: a register that lists projects as numbered rows with their facts, a contents page that reads like a book's table of contents, a catalogue and a board for pinned drawings. The Free plan holds ten projects and three categories, Pro a hundred projects and fifty categories, Max as many as the practice has built.

Images: drawings, renders, photographs

Architecture files are large and varied, so the handling matters:

• Originals are kept and served for the full-size view; a WebP thumbnail is made for grids so the index stays fast.
• SVG is accepted on every plan, which is the right format for plans, sections and diagrams exported from your drawing software: sharp at any zoom, small on disk.
• Image size goes to 2,000 pixels on the long edge on Free, 4,000 on Pro and 8,000 on Max, with uploads of 5, 20 and 50 MB. Renders and site photography sit comfortably at 4,000; a full-resolution section for a jury can use the 8,000 ceiling.
• PDFs on Max: a practice portfolio, a competition board or a brochure goes into the media library and links from any button, so a visitor downloads the document you would otherwise email.
• The library is organized in folders, one per project if you like, and a file uploaded once can appear in any number of projects or pages.

The practice pages

A studio is more than its projects, and the section library has the pieces for the rest: an about section for the story, a team section with portraits, a services list, a process section for the stages of a commission, statistics for years, projects and awards, a clients or publications strip, testimonials, and a contact form. They are edited on the page, in the template's style, with a desktop and mobile preview before you publish.

Two things practices ask about often:

• Presentations and competition entries. On Pro and Max, any page can be password-protected and hidden from search engines, so a page with the boards and a walkthrough goes to one client or one jury with a link and a password, and nowhere else.
• A journal. The Blog app on Max gives a practice a news page for completed projects, awards, lectures and hires, with categories and a rich-text editor, so the site is the record of the practice rather than a static brochure.

One thing to know before choosing: a FolioPage site is edited from one account. A studio nominates the person who keeps the site, and everyone else sends them the images.

What changes with what you design

Each of these deserves its own guide, and they will follow in the Guides section, one at a time.

Templates made for architecture

Eight FolioPage templates were built for this category, five one-page sites and three with several pages, all with the Portfolio app switched on and sample projects with drawings in place. Three of them show the range:

Preview any of them live on desktop and on a phone. The structure, the pace and the way the drawings sit on the page are what you are choosing; the projects will be yours within the day.

The full set is on the Architecture templates page.

The plan that fits

• Free builds the site and holds the first projects: ten projects, three categories, fifty files and 100 MB, five pages, a folio.page address. Enough for a student or a graduate portfolio. No card, no time limit.
• Pro, $12 a month or $108 a year, is the practice plan: fifty pages, a hundred projects, a thousand files and 2 GB, images to 4,000 pixels, a domain you own, no branding, the contact form, custom code, and password-protected pages for presentations.
• Max, $24 a month or $216 a year, adds PDF and video uploads, 8,000-pixel images, 10 GB, unlimited pages and projects, and the Blog app for the practice journal.

A practice with a portfolio PDF to hand out, or with competition boards to present, is a Max practice. Everyone else starts on Pro. The pricing page has the full comparison.

Build it in an afternoon

The order that works, assuming the project images and drawings are exported.

The longer version, with the schedule by the hour, is the guide on how to build a portfolio website in a day.

Keep it current

• Add a project when it completes, with the photographs, not before. Unbuilt work belongs in its own category.
• Update the status lines. "Under construction" becomes "Completed 2026" the month it happens.
• Keep the facts consistent. The same order of facts on every project page is what makes a portfolio read as a practice.

Can I upload plans and sections as vector files?

Yes. SVG uploads are accepted on every plan and stay sharp at any size. They are checked and cleaned on upload, so they are safe to publish.

How large can renders and photographs be?

Up to 2,000 pixels on the long edge on Free, 4,000 on Pro and 8,000 on Max, with uploads of 5, 20 and 50 MB. The original is kept and served at full size; a thumbnail is made for the grid.

Can I share a portfolio PDF or competition boards?

On Max, PDFs go into the media library and link from any button or from the Links page. On Pro and Max, a password-protected page can hold the boards for one client or one jury.

Is it right for interior or landscape design?

Yes. The same project pages, categories and layouts serve interiors, landscape, urban design and exhibition work; only the vocabulary of the categories changes.

Can several people in the studio edit the site?

Not yet. One account owns and edits a site. Most studios give the site to one person and send them the images.

Other fields have their own page in the Made for section, and every general how-to lives in Guides.