Colonial Rotterdam: an educational XR city tour along the colonial past

Stories on location

The absence of a building, street or square does not mean a story has ended. Augmented reality puts street names and historical scenes back into the streetscape, with animations. Every location carries extra background information, with images, video and 360° footage.

Two routes

The short route is about 3.5 kilometres and takes around two hours; it is shown on the map as a dotted line. The long route adds more locations and works well by bike. All content is loaded in advance, so you need no mobile data along the way.

VR portraits for the classroom

For first- and second-year secondary school students there are VR portraits and a family portrait in virtual reality. You watch them with a PopupCardboard or a regular Google Cardboard. The aim: real stories from today that children can draw strength from.

Firmly grounded

The content is based on three books, including Het koloniale verleden van Rotterdam (ed. Gert Oostindie), and was created with advisers, teachers, community organisations and Rotterdam heritage institutions, among them the Rotterdams Archief, the Wereldmuseum, the Maritime Museum and the Nederlands Fotomuseum. A companion booklet is available from the Rotterdam library.

Credits

Client: City of Rotterdam. Production: ArtiShock Productions. AR and app development: Orb Amsterdam. Web and content management: Homework. With contributions from, among others, Menno van der Weerd (illustration), Tyler Koudijzer (animation) and Guus Bauer (text direction).