A showcase & local SEO site for the architecture agency Lava in Orléans

Context & Objectives

Atelier Lava, an architecture studio based in Orléans, needed a website that was sober, simple, and immediately useful: a clear communication tool for the agency, capable of presenting the essentials (expertise, areas of practice, projects) without unnecessary complexity.

The project also needed to be developed quickly, with a pragmatic approach: focusing on what truly matters, delivering a clean and professional website that would be easy to evolve over time. The goal was not to stack features, but to build a solid, readable, and credible foundation that could be used daily, on both desktop and mobile.

Finally, the website had to clearly integrate contact details and touchpoints, including social media, to strengthen the studio’s online presence and simplify the journey for potential clients discovering the agency.

My Role

I supported Atelier Lava end-to-end in the design and launch of the website: custom design, Webflow development, implementation of a tailored CMS, and local SEO optimization. The entire project was conceived to deliver quickly, but above all to provide a well-structured website that would serve the studio’s communication needs over the long term.

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Design Direction

The design was developed with a deliberately sober, clear, and breathable approach — a visual language consistent with architectural practice. This translates into refined typographic choices, a simple hierarchy, and a layout that gives space to content and projects.

The goal was for visitors to immediately understand who the agency is, what it does, and to naturally navigate toward the project listings or the contact section.

The website was also designed to be comfortable across all screen sizes. This goes beyond basic responsive adaptation and reflects a real focus on readability, spacing, and smooth navigation on mobile, where a significant portion of traffic now takes place.

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A Custom CMS Designed for Client Autonomy

A key aspect of the project was the creation of a fully custom CMS system, designed to address a simple but crucial need: allowing Atelier Lava to manage the website independently, without relying on a third party for every update.

In practical terms, the team needed to be able to easily:

• add new projects,
• update existing content,
• evolve sectors and areas of expertise,
• and enrich the website over time.

To achieve this, the CMS structure was built with dynamic fields tailored to the content of an architecture studio: a clear and intuitive editing experience on the back end, and a consistent, controlled rendering on the front end. As a result, the studio can publish and maintain its website smoothly, while preserving a professional and coherent visual output.

Local SEO: Being Found in the Right Place, with the Right Words

The SEO objective was very concrete: to strengthen Atelier Lava’s local visibility, particularly around Orléans and the surrounding region, and to allow the website to be discovered by people actively searching for an architect with specific needs.

Without diving into overly technical details, the work focused on structuring content so it could be efficiently understood by search engines (Google) and, increasingly, by AI systems that rely on site structure to extract meaning.

This involved a rigorous approach:

• coherent titles and section hierarchy,
• content written and structured around real, locally searched needs and terms,
• a clear hierarchy that helps search engines understand “who does what” and “where”.

The goal was not to stuff keywords, but to build a website that is understandable, relevant, and aligned with local search intent: architecture, renovation, extension, interior architecture, and related services, with a clearly defined geographic presence.

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Result

In the end, Atelier Lava now has a website that is sober and professional, fully aligned with its visual universe, designed and developed quickly without compromising on structure, perfectly readable across all devices, and above all scalable, thanks to a CMS built for autonomy.

The website becomes a true communication tool: it highlights the studio’s projects, clarifies its offering, strengthens its local presence, and provides the agency with a solid foundation to maintain and evolve its content over time.