Bilingual portfolio site for an independent architectural practice — ACF-driven project case study pages, EN/HE routing via WPML, Cloudflare image delivery, and Yoast SEO structured data for international discovery.
Overview
Client
Studio Orlan — independent architectural practice led by a Tel Aviv-based architect targeting EU and US remote clients
Problem
Existing portfolio was a static PDF sent on request. No web presence for organic discovery, no project showcase to communicate design language, and no mechanism to convert international visitors into leads.
Scope
Multi-page portfolio site: project case study pages, bilingual (EN/HE), contact with project intake form, and SEO-optimized architecture for international discovery.
Challenge
- Design photography was high resolution (12–20 MB per image) — delivery speed vs. quality trade-off required careful optimization pipeline
- Client needed full CMS control to add new projects without developer involvement after handover
- International SEO required EN/HE versions with correct hreflang and structured data for architecture projects
- Portfolio browsing needed to feel editorial, not like a standard WordPress theme — custom layout system required
Solution
Architecture Decisions
Custom WordPress theme with ACF-driven project post type. Each project has its own full-width case study page: concept brief, image gallery, and services delivered. Bilingual with WPML for EN/HE routing. WebP + Cloudflare for image delivery at quality.
Custom Logic
- ACF-powered project template: concept text, image gallery, services tags, and year fields — all client-editable
- Masonry gallery layout with lightbox — no JavaScript library; CSS Grid with JS-free lightbox for bundle efficiency
- Project intake contact form with service-type and budget-range fields routed to email + Airtable
Integrations
- WPML for bilingual EN/HE routing with correct hreflang tags
- Cloudflare Image Resizing for responsive WebP delivery from high-res originals
- Yoast SEO for structured data (ArchitecturalFirm schema) and meta management
Impact
- Organic discovery from EU/US markets established within 3 months of launch via EN landing pages
- Client self-manages all project additions — zero developer dependency post-handover
- Image delivery at quality maintained sub-2s load time on mobile despite high-resolution originals
- Project intake form replaced unstructured email inquiries with structured brief data
“I can add a new project in 10 minutes and it looks perfect. Clients from London and New York find me through Google now.”
Tech Stack
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