Case study: building 50letjiznihomesta.cz for a neighbourhood's 50th birthday

In 1976 the first families turned the key in their flats in Jižní Město — Prague's largest housing estate, home to tens of thousands of people. Fifty years later, the community wanted to celebrate that anniversary properly: a programme of events, the history of the place, and the stories of the people who actually lived it. My job was to give all of that a home on the web.

The brief

This wasn't a product or a startup — it was a celebration. That changes what 'good' means. The site had to feel warm and local rather than corporate, work for residents of every age (a lot of the audience is not 25 and on the newest iPhone), and hold a surprising amount of content: an events programme, historical context, archive photography and personal stories. And it had to be ready in time for the anniversary, which is the one deadline you genuinely cannot move.

• A clear, scannable programme of anniversary events
• The history of Jižní Město told in a way people actually read
• Space for archive photos and resident stories
• Fast and readable on old phones and big desktops alike

The hardest part wasn't code — it was the content

On a campaign site like this, the build is the easy half. The real work is taking a folder of scanned photos, half-remembered dates and loose paragraphs and shaping them into something with a spine. I spent the early days less in the editor and more figuring out the story: what's the first thing a visitor should feel, what do they need to know, and what can wait. A sharp structure up front is what kept the build fast later.

A campaign site lives or dies on its story, not its stack. Get the narrative right and the design almost falls out of it.

Design choices

I leaned into the identity of the place — the bold, optimistic feel of the era it was built in — without making it a museum piece. The archive photography does the emotional heavy lifting, so the layout stays calm and gets out of its way. Big readable type, generous spacing, and a colour palette that nods to the period but still feels current. Every section earns its place; nothing is there just to fill the page.

Built to be fast and effortless to run

I built it on Next.js and deployed it so it loads instantly even on a tired old phone on mobile data — which matters when your audience spans five decades of residents. Images are optimised automatically, the programme is easy to update as event details firm up, and there's no heavy CMS for a volunteer team to fight with. The point was a site that looks after itself once it's live.

• Instant loads on any device, anywhere
• Programme that's simple to keep current
• Low-maintenance — no fragile admin to babysit
• Accessible and readable for every generation

What I took away

Projects with a real human story behind them are my favourite kind. There's no abstract 'user' here — it's a specific neighbourhood marking a real milestone, and the site only works if it makes those people feel something. The lesson I keep relearning: spend your time on clarity and story first, and the technology becomes the quiet, reliable part it should be.

If you've got a campaign, an event or an anniversary that deserves more than a generic template, I'd love to help you tell it. Let's build something the people it's for will actually be proud of.