The Zukunft Bau portal is Germany's central platform for building research — publishing funding guidelines, active research projects, and innovation outcomes for the federal programme. Its audience spans architecture professionals, structural engineers, funding applicants, academic researchers, and specialist journalists. The existing system had grown organically over years: navigation was opaque, content was buried, and the technical foundation could no longer meet modern accessibility and SEO requirements.
Information Architecture First
We began by auditing how different user groups actually move through a research portal. Researchers need rapid access to funding criteria. Applicants need clear process flows. Journalists need press-ready materials. These are fundamentally different journeys — and the previous architecture treated them as one.
We restructured the information architecture around user intent rather than content type, then built a visual system that guides each audience to their goal without friction.
Built on Typo3, Extended for Complexity
The platform required custom Typo3 extensions to model the relationships between funding guidelines, research projects, and their published outcomes — a content structure unique to federal research portals. We built structured editorial workflows so the BBSR team can publish at scale, consistently and efficiently.
Accessibility compliance (BITV 2.0 / WCAG) and responsive design were non-negotiable for a federal platform. The SEO architecture was rebuilt from the ground up to ensure research publications reach their intended audience through organic search.
A Platform that Works for Everyone
The final platform serves a wide spectrum of users through one coherent system. Advanced filtering and search, intuitive navigation, and a clear visual hierarchy make it easy to move from discovery to application — whether you are an experienced researcher or a first-time funding applicant.
Since launch in 2019, we have continuously developed the platform alongside the BBSR team — shipping improvements, adding features, and ensuring long-term technical stability.
