HALDEN: Designing a Studio Website for a Nordic Architecture Practice
Client
Self-initiated
Role
Design & Development
Category
Website
Industry
Architecture
CHALLENGE
HALDEN is a concept Nordic architecture studio I created as a design brief, working between Copenhagen and Oslo on houses, cultural buildings, and adaptive reuse. Most architecture studio websites default to generic portfolio templates that flatten the work into a grid of thumbnails. The challenge was to design a site that behaves like the buildings it presents: heavy, quiet, and deliberate, where typography and pacing carry the identity instead of decoration.
APPROACH
Direction. Translated the studio's material language of concrete, daylight, and restraint into a visual system before designing any layout.
Structure. Wireframed the site as an architecture monograph: manifesto, selected work, project in focus, studio philosophy, practice, and recognition.
Design system. Built a compact system of five colors and two typefaces, pairing heavy grotesque headlines with monospace-style technical annotations.
Motion. Kept animation restrained to scroll-driven reveals, letting mass and imagery lead instead of transitions competing for attention.
Build. Shipped the design as a live, responsive site to validate pacing and scroll rhythm in the browser rather than in static mockups.
HIGHLIGHT
7 content sections designed and built, from manifesto to contact
1 dedicated project spotlight (Søndergård Concrete House) with full spatial narrative
4 project entries structured as a selected work index
Fully responsive, designed and shipped for desktop, tablet, and mobile
RESULT
The site is live at haldenarch.netlify.app as a self-initiated concept, built end to end from wireframe and design system to responsive front-end. It now serves as the anchor piece for my architecture and built-environment web design work, combining my architecture background with product design in a single project.