Case Study · Architecture & Design

From Japanese design inspiration to a working relationship with an architect

ZenVita is a Kyoto-based platform created to bring original Japanese aesthetics to residential, commercial and mixed-use projects around the world. We built the product from scratch: the public design library, professional portfolios, client job workflow and the custom back office that connects them.

Client: ZenVita, Kyoto, Japan
Sector: Architecture & interior design
Our role: Product design and full-stack development
Started: Built from scratch in 2015

2015 the platform was started from scratch
4 connected areas: discovery, profiles, jobs and CMS
34 management controllers in the custom back office
42 database tables across content and workflow

Explore the working demo

Browse projects by room or style, move from the work to its designer, and see how the editorial content supports the service.

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The private back office is not part of the public demo. We can walk through the content model, client workflow and management tools on a call.

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The brief

ZenVita wanted more than a portfolio. The product had to introduce Japanese design to an international audience, represent architecture professionals based in Japan, and help a visitor turn visual inspiration into a useful project conversation.

That meant building two journeys together. The public side needed to make a large, image-led catalogue feel calm and approachable. Behind it, clients needed accounts, structured job briefs, architect invitations and contextual messaging, while ZenVita needed full control over the people, projects, taxonomies and editorial content that power the experience.

A visual system built for exploration

A visitor can enter through a room, a style, a completed project or a designer. Those paths all lead back to the same connected catalogue, so each image remains useful instead of ending as an isolated piece of inspiration.

A visual route into Japanese design — ZenVita — **A visual route into Japanese design** The homepage explains the idea quickly, then turns a broad interest in Japanese aesthetics into concrete routes through rooms, projects and designers.

Projects organised for discovery — ZenVita — **Projects organised for discovery** Visitors can browse real work by room and project type without needing to know an architect or a design term before they begin.

Finding a project by aesthetic — ZenVita — **Finding a project by aesthetic** Contemporary, modern, rustic and traditional collections offer another way into the same project library, using a visual language rather than a long filter form.

The people behind the work — ZenVita — **The people behind the work** Designer profiles give the imagery an accountable source and let prospective clients move naturally from inspiration to the professional who created it.

From inspiration to a real project

The client area turns an open-ended enquiry into a shared piece of work. A structured brief captures the practical constraints first; invitations, conversations and hiring state then stay attached to that job.

A structured project brief — ZenVita — **A structured project brief** Clients describe the project type, size, budget, deadline, focus and building context before approaching a designer, giving both sides a more useful place to start.

Inviting the right architect — ZenVita — **Inviting the right architect** A client can review the project, search the professional directory and invite an architect without copying the same brief into a separate enquiry.

Conversation in context — ZenVita — **Conversation in context** Messages stay attached to the job and the invited professional, so the discussion remains connected to the scope it is meant to resolve.

A clear view of every job — ZenVita — **A clear view of every job** The client dashboard brings project details, invitations and the next action into one place instead of scattering them across email threads.

The parts that were worth getting right

More than one way in

Rooms and styles are parallel routes into one catalogue, serving visitors who think in spaces as well as those who think in aesthetics.

Work stays tied to people

Projects lead back to the professionals behind them, so trust grows from visible work rather than a directory claim alone.

A useful brief first

Budget, scale, timing and context are captured before outreach, giving clients and architects a clearer first conversation.

Conversation with context

Invitations and messages live with the job they concern, preserving the decisions and details behind the relationship.

The back office

ZenVita's team can manage the platform without editing code. The custom administration area covers website users, architects and their projects, jobs, pages, menus, sliders, blogs, image and style categories, contractors, FAQs, press releases, testimonials and site settings.

The management dashboard — ZenVita — **The management dashboard** A single starting point for users, designers, projects, jobs, editorial content, navigation, FAQs and site-wide settings.

Architect project management — ZenVita — **Architect project management** Profiles and their portfolios are managed as connected records, keeping project attribution consistent wherever the work appears.

Editable website pages — ZenVita — **Editable website pages** The team can maintain the core site without changing templates, while the structured product areas remain protected from accidental layout edits.

Editorial publishing — ZenVita — **Editorial publishing** Blog categories, tags and posts support the educational content that gives the design library context beyond a gallery of images.

Navigation as managed content — ZenVita — **Navigation as managed content** Menus can evolve with the service instead of being fixed in code, including ordering and nested destinations.

Oversight of the client workflow — ZenVita — **Oversight of the client workflow** The back office can see jobs and invitations as operational records, giving the team visibility into the marketplace side of the platform.

The figures visible in these screenshots belong to the local case-study environment and are shown only to demonstrate the interface.

Engineering decisions worth explaining

One connected content model

Architects, projects, rooms, project types and styles are related records. Editors update the source once, while visitors can reach it through several useful routes.

Server-rendered and linkable

CodeIgniter renders full pages with stable routes for projects, professionals, styles and articles, keeping the catalogue shareable and straightforward to index.

Workflow separated from publishing

Client jobs, invitations, files and messages have their own authenticated flow, while public content remains independently managed and publishable.

A purpose-built CMS

The back office follows the product's real relationships instead of squeezing them into generic pages, with dedicated tools for portfolios, taxonomies and client activity.

Built to keep evolving

The first version began from a blank page in 2015. The codebase now carries the history of a product that expanded from design inspiration into professional profiles, editorial publishing and a client workspace. The important architectural choice was to keep those additions connected by shared records and a consistent administration pattern rather than turning each new need into a separate site.

Built with

Platform

PHP
CodeIgniter
MySQL
Apache

Front end

Server-rendered templates
Bootstrap
jQuery
Owl Carousel
Font Awesome

Content & workflow

Custom CMS
CKEditor
Role-based administration
Client accounts
Job messaging

Have a platform with more than one side to it?

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