Stratamaki Studio
The portfolio of architect Michael Kats, whose practice moves between research and making. The site had to show each project as a set of layers — site, research, drawing, form — rather than one finished image.
The problem
Architecture portfolios tend to look alike: a grid of renders, a name, a contact link. For research-led work that format hides the part that matters, because the thinking lives in the site analysis, the drawings and the material studies, not the final image.
The people reading it are hiring practices, collaborators and academic panels. They read closely, and they are judging rigour and process as much as taste.
Selected projects.
A grid of renders, a name, a contact link
Site analysis and drawings left out
Rigour and process invisible to close readers
The approach
Give every project the same structure: a number and a location, a one-line reading of the idea, then the research and drawings behind it. The portfolio reads as a body of work, and each project is presented the way it was made.
Then design the site like a drawing set. Paper tones, hairline rules, monospace metadata and spaced uppercase titles, so the interface steps back and the drawings carry the colour.
01 — Location — the idea in one line.
One structure for every project
Research and drawings behind each idea
Paper tones, hairlines and monospace
What we built
Six decisions that shaped the build, each made so the work could be read properly.
Each project page moves from site to research to drawing to form, so the reader follows the thinking and not only the outcome.
Paper tones, hairline rules and monospace metadata. The site reads as an extension of the work rather than a template around it.
Every project leads with its number and place — 01 · Marseille, 02 · Isle Royale — so the portfolio reads as a body of research.
Experience, skills, education and honours in an accordion, with the full CV one click away as a PDF.
Page titles, descriptions and a social preview so the practice name and the work show properly in search results and shared links.
Practice, collaboration and teaching stated on every page, so a reader knows why to get in touch.
What changed afterwards
“Mikkel truly went above and beyond in creating a great website for me. Will definitely recommend to others in the future.”
Michael K.Stratamaki Studio
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