How This Site Is Built

This site is built with Astro—a static-first framework that ships zero JavaScript by default. The content is mostly prose, so a framework optimized for static pages made more sense than a full React application.

Stack

• Framework: Astro 5.x
• Styling: Tailwind CSS 4.x
• Interactive tools: React 18 (as separate SPAs via Vercel redirects)
• Content: Astro Content Collections (Markdown)
• Hosting: Vercel
• Domain: kurtneiswender.com

Typography

• Display / Headings: Barlow Condensed — condensed grotesque with architectural authority
• Body: Barlow — clean, legible, technically precise
• Labels / Mono: IBM Plex Mono — technical annotations and section labels

Design Principles

The design follows the same principles I apply to buildings: restraint, proportion, and material honesty. The black-and-white palette with chartreuse accent draws from the language of architectural drawing—ink on vellum, with a single markup color. No gradients, no rounded cards, no decoration without purpose.

Tools Integration

The interactive tools (HVAC Calculator, EchoTrace, Timber Designer, Pattern Explorer, Proposal Writer) are standalone React applications deployed to their own Vercel projects. They're served under /tools/* via Vercel path redirects.

Garden

The digital garden content uses a maturity model—seed, sprout, evergreen—to signal how developed each piece of thinking is. Inspired by Maggie Appleton’s writing on the digital garden pattern.