In the July 2017 issue of Garten + Landschaft, Desirée Balthasar explores the question of how landscape architects and urban planners need to design their websites. In an interview with Daia Stutz from S2L Landschaftsarchitekten, she examines a practical example.
Anyone setting up their own office faces numerous challenges. One of them: your own website. Daia Stutz from S2L Landschaftsarchitekten explains how he quickly set up his office’s website himself.
“As the first thing potential clients do is google and look at the homepage, one of the most important questions when setting up the company was how to create their own website,” explains Daia Stutz, co-founder of S2L in Zurich. Due to the limited budget in the initial phase, he and his partner Jan Stadelmann did not commission an agency, but rolled up their sleeves and created their website themselves. What until a few years ago could only be done by people with programming skills can now also be done by non-technical people. There are countless templates that can be downloaded and installed. These templates contain design elements and editorial systems to create and manage content independently.
“The focus should be on our portfolio. With a modern layout, large photos and little text,” says Stutz, explaining the concept. So the young landscape architect chose Squarespace, a template developer that offers numerous templates for design, architecture and photography.” Although this is a product that has already been used to create many websites and the support team cannot help with every question, the advantages still outweigh the disadvantages,” says Stutz. “Because the system is easy to implement thanks to its clear structure, it runs on all end devices and is cost-effective.” The young office does not network with social media profiles, mainly due to time constraints. After all, the complete in-house maintenance and development of a website takes up a lot of time, which has to be carved out in addition to the day-to-day running of the business.
The website as a business card
Stutz decided against an extensive website and opted for a kind of photo-based business card. “After the first two years, we can say that the website fulfills its purpose satisfactorily. The photos speak for themselves, which is enough for potential clients.” There is also a short CV for each of the two office founders. Stutz took his own user behavior as a website visitor into account in the concept and dispensed with complex content and animations: “Many websites obviously have an agency behind them – with a correspondingly professional appearance. However, as a young, dynamic and sometimes somewhat confusingly organized office in the start-up phase, this doesn’t suit us – yet.”
You can find the website of the Swiss landscape architecture firm S2L here.
