Open Urban Platform: Rotterdam's public art on an interactive map
For the City of Rotterdam we built OUP Monumental: a web app that makes public artworks and monuments visible and accessible. With a map, a page for every object and routes of your own. Built on the CTXR platform.
City data, usable for everyone
Rotterdam has hundreds of artworks and monuments in public space. The city publishes the data about them in the Open Urban Platform (OUP). OUP Monumental makes that data usable: the start page shows all locations on a map, with your own position added if you switch it on, and you swipe through the objects nearby.
One page per object, and your own route
Every object gets a shareable page of its own with what the OUP says about it: artist, district, collection and manager. Summaries written or enriched by GenAI are clearly marked "AI generated", so the source text stays recognisable. With a wizard you pick artworks, set the order and save a route. Distance and duration are calculated for you, and you share the route with a link.
It started as an experiment
The project began as a test: could we map and structure all the data on Rotterdam's public art? In the first version all 480 objects appeared as dots on a 3D map, coloured by type. The experiment succeeded, and a visual layer was added: the app as you see it now. The original data stays intact; reviews, photos and articles come as a separate layer on top.
An app without an app store, with management in two steps
OUP Monumental is a progressive web app: add it to your home screen and use it like an app, even without a connection. Behind the scenes sits a management environment on CTXR, connected directly to the OUP. Data and GenAI enrichment are stored first, with version control and logging, and then checked and published by an editor. Data is exchanged through open standards (JSON, GeoJSON, REST), so the system can grow to other cities and themes.
Credits
- Client: City of Rotterdam - Open Urban Platform
- Project owner (city): Jan Verwoerd
- Project management: ArtiShock Productions | Cristian Vorstius Kruijff
- Design & production: Hallo Braaf | Joey den Braven
- Platform: CTXR.app by ArtiShock
Want to try it? Open oup.ctxr.app. More about the project, with images, is on the portfolio page.