Selnau
Website with program, open calls and a built-in newsletter for the one-year art space in Zurich's Unterwerk Selnau
- Client
- Industry
- Technology
- Service
- Year
Results
- Spec to launch
- 26 days
- Platform
- Next.js + Payload
- Newsletter
- Built into the CMS
Challenge
Selnau is an art space with an end date: for one year, the association Haus im Haus turns the Unterwerk Selnau in the heart of Zurich into a home for exhibitions, events and studios. The site has to show what's on and what's coming at a glance, on a phone on the way to an opening — and look as headstrong as what happens inside.
Then there was the timing: when the site had to go live, the opening date and hours weren't set yet. It had to launch ahead of the program and grow with it step by step.
Approach
We built on Next.js and Payload CMS: program, media, applications and newsletter live in one system, and the team runs it all themselves.
The design started as a style guide, in light and dark and phone-first: one loud display face, monospace for all the data, lots of white space.
The program and open calls were built early and stayed behind switches until the association was ready. Selnau went live as a teaser 26 days after the first spec; the program, the first open call and the newsletter followed in October — as an extension, not a second launch.
Solution
The front door is an impossible room: a WebGL animation in Three.js keeps folding white gallery walls into new architecture. Anyone who has asked for reduced motion sees it heavily slowed down.
Behind it, everything is built for finding things fast: the program shows each event's date, time and type at a glance, filters by tag and grows into an archive at the bottom. Exhibitions gather their dates, and theatre runs list their performances.
Open calls go from the announcement with its deadline to the application with images of the work. Submissions land in the CMS with thumbnails, and confirmation and notification emails go out automatically.
The team builds the newsletter in the same CMS: bilingual issues from blocks like exhibition or events, with a preview and a test send, delivery through Postmark and a report on opens and clicks afterwards.
Outcome
Selnau has been online since September 2026, in two languages, light and dark. The team publishes the program and newsletter themselves and handles applications right in the CMS.
The site grows with the house: new formats like theatre have been added since launch, and the studios section is built and ready to switch on when the time comes.
