Website brief template for a landscape and urban planning practice

The verdict in three sentences

For a planning and landscape practice that lives on public procurement, the website is not a decorative showcase: it is the page a council officer opens before scoring your technical proposal. A precise website brief, built around project sheets by municipality, an interactive map and professional credentials, gets you three comparable quotes in the 6,000 to 16,000 EUR excl. VAT range. Allow 5 to 8 weeks of production if photos, plans and reference texts are gathered before kick-off.

The context: a site read by public buyers

Take a 12-person practice: 5 urban planners, 4 landscape architects, 2 environmental consultants and an office manager. Around 80 % of revenue comes from municipalities, regional authorities and metropolitan bodies, through framework agreements and open tenders for masterplans, design codes and public realm schemes.

When a procurement officer receives five bids for a town centre regeneration study, they check three things online: comparable references (same size of town, same type of commission), team skills and administrative soundness. In France that last point means OPQU qualification; in the UK it may be RTPI or Landscape Institute chartership; elsewhere a national register. The site must answer these questions in under two minutes, including on a 1366 pixel council laptop.

The functional blocks of the brief

The table lists the blocks to include, with priority and estimated effort (2026 order of magnitude for a European studio).

Two points deserve their own line in the brief. First, the project sheet structure must be a fixed entry template with mandatory fields, otherwise sheets drift apart within six months. Second, the map should rely on a solution without a mandatory paid key, for instance an OpenStreetMap base, to avoid an API bill that grows with traffic.

Budget, timeline and a grid to compare three quotes

In Western Europe, a site of this type costs 6,000 to 16,000 EUR excl. VAT depending on the number of sheets loaded, map complexity and design level. Gaps rarely come from code; they come from content migration.

To make quotes comparable, ask each supplier to price separately: design, development, content loading, team training and maintenance. Also require that the domain name and admin access are registered to the practice.

Kolonell also works with francophone and international design firms: its showcase grid runs from 800,000 to 1,200,000 FCFA (1,220 to 1,830 EUR) for Starter, 1,200,000 to 2,000,000 FCFA (1,830 to 3,050 EUR) for Growth and 2,000,000 to 3,500,000 FCFA (3,050 to 5,340 EUR) for Premium. Specific needs such as advanced mapping are quoted on request.

Typical 5 to 8 week schedule

Week 1: scoping workshop, sitemap and project sheet template. Weeks 2 and 3: mock-ups, sign-off by both partners. Weeks 3 to 5: development and map integration. Weeks 4 to 7: content loading in parallel. Week 8: testing, accessibility check, go-live. The task that pushes deadlines is almost always sorting site photos and clearing photographers' rights.

Mini case study

Helen, partner at a landscape and planning practice, answers about 40 tenders a year and wins 9, with an average commission of 28,000 EUR excl. VAT. She chooses quote B at 11,500 EUR with 20 sheets loaded, then adds 25 more herself over three months.

If the site and well-structured sheets win just one extra commission a year, that is 28,000 EUR of additional revenue. At a 15 % net margin, the gain is 4,200 EUR a year: the site pays for itself in just under three years on that effect alone, without counting the time saved by reusing sheets in bid documents, which Helen estimates at 2 hours per bid, or 80 hours a year.

FAQ

Should commission fees appear on project sheets?

It is not required, but a range (for example 20,000 to 50,000 EUR of fees) helps the buyer gauge your experience. Check with the client first; 1 to 2 % of public clients refuse it.

How many references are needed at launch?

Aim for at least 20 complete sheets on go-live day, then 2 to 3 new ones per month. Below 15, the map looks empty and weakens the bid.

Does the site have to meet accessibility standards?

A private practice is not always legally bound, but its public clients are and notice it. A light audit costs 800 to 2,500 EUR excl. VAT on the 2026 market.

WordPress or custom build?

WordPress with a Project content type covers 80 % of cases. Custom development makes sense if you want to connect the map to an internal GIS database.

What maintenance budget should we plan?

Count on 50 to 200 EUR excl. VAT a month on the market for updates, backups and minor fixes, depending on the support time included.

Let's scope your project. Send us your reference list and project sheet template, and we will come back with a detailed scope and a go-live schedule. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.