Open Urban Platform: public art on an interactive map

Art and monuments, starting from the map

Rotterdam has hundreds of artworks and monuments in public space, and the city publishes the data about them in the Open Urban Platform (OUP). OUP Monumental makes that data usable for everyone: the start page shows all locations on a map, with your own position added if you switch it on. At the bottom you swipe through the objects nearby, with the distance shown.

One page per object

Every object has a page of its own on a fixed, shareable link, in the City of Rotterdam house style. At the top are the name and a photo, followed by a short summary and what the OUP says about the object: artist, district, neighbourhood, collection and manager. When the summary was written or enriched by GenAI, it is clearly marked "AI generated". The source text stays recognisable and an editor can still check it.

Your own route

With a wizard you search and pick artworks, set the order, give the route a name and a description, and save it. Distance and duration are calculated automatically. You share your route with a link: whoever opens it gets the route in their own list and can adjust it. The app also holds public OUP routes, such as "Discover Cool with artworks".

An app without an app store

OUP Monumental is a progressive web app: open the site, add it to your home screen and use it like an app, even without a connection. Notifications when you are near an object are part of the design. The app is in Dutch; multilingual content and read-aloud audio are prepared as options.

It started as an experiment

It began as a test: could we map and structure all the data on Rotterdam's public art? In that first version all 480 objects appeared as dots on a three-dimensional map, coloured by type: top collection, monument, A collection and other. Clicking a dot showed the information from the OUP. The original data always stays intact; reviews, photos and articles come as a separate layer on top. The experiment succeeded, and a visual layer was added: the app as you see it now.

Management in two steps

Behind the app sits a management environment on the CTXR platform, connected directly to the OUP without intermediate APIs. Data and GenAI enrichment are stored first, with version control and logging, and then checked and published by an editor. Administrators compose public routes and work with roles and permissions.

Open standards

Data is exchanged using open standards (JSON, GeoJSON and REST APIs), so it can be reused elsewhere. The system is modular: it can be extended to other cities and themes, and it is prepared for AR integration through a web platform such as Zappar.

Try it yourself

You can explore the app at oup.ctxr.app.

Credits

Client: City of Rotterdam (Open Urban Platform). Project management City of Rotterdam: Jan Verwoerd. Design: Hallobraaf. Development, GenAI enrichment, integration and management: ArtiShock Productions, on the CTXR platform.