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UTOPIZE Project

Two touchscreen kiosks for the EU-funded UTOPIZE project: CITIZEN, a shared workshop canvas, and GROUNDWORK, a guided climate walkthrough in Rhino.

CITIZEN workshop canvas, UTOPIZE Project edition: a sample harbour site plan with a cycle route labelled “My morning cycle route” and its description editor open
CITIZEN workshop canvas, UTOPIZE Project edition: a sample harbour site plan with a cycle route labelled “My morning cycle route” and its description editor open

About the project

UTOPIZE is an initiative originating from local communities, funded by the European Union, that aims to transform public spaces into vibrant, sustainable and inclusive places. Inspired by the New European Bauhaus values of sustainability, inclusion and beauty, it begins with UTOPIA Labs in Karlskoga (Sweden), Ponte Lambro (Italy) and Penacova (Portugal) and runs from May 2025 to April 2028.

My contribution was two touchscreen kiosk experiences: one for drawing ideas together in workshops, and one for testing those ideas against the climate of a real site.

CITIZEN is a collaborative browser canvas for imagining better neighbourhoods. It combines an OpenStreetMap background with drawing tools, symbols, notes, saved views and optional site plans, so a facilitator or participant can tag important places and sketch routes, areas and proposed changes directly on the site. Duplicated sessions let a group compare alternatives without changing the original, and an optional workshop server collects the sessions from every kiosk for later review. It needs no participant account or mapping API key, and its touch interface is designed for kiosks and large displays.

GROUNDWORK is a guided, touch-only walkthrough of proposed interventions across the UTOPIZE sites. A visitor follows a short story, chooses a site and an area, then steps into a restricted Rhino 8 session to place trees and buildings, sculpt the terrain and run live sunlight and shadow, wind, stormwater and microclimate analyses. The analyses are performed by JIFTO, Nflection’s environmental analysis plug-in; GROUNDWORK is the guided front end and session manager built around it.

Behind the touchscreen, GROUNDWORK is a C# RhinoCommon plug-in that hosts a web interface in WebView2, hides Rhino’s own interface and exposes only an allow-listed set of commands. At the end, visitors see a log of what they changed, leave feedback and can receive a report of their session by email, before the kiosk resets itself for the next visitor.

Launch website ↗

TWO KIOSKS / TEASERS

CITIZEN and GROUNDWORK

CITIZEN / workshop canvas, 1 min. A touch kiosk where residents of Karlskoga draw, tag and explain the places they care about, here on a walk through Hägnan.
GROUNDWORK / guided climate walkthrough, 2 min 28 s. Choose a site, place trees and buildings, sculpt the terrain and run live wind, microclimate, sunlight and stormwater analyses by JIFTO.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. JIFTO is developed by Nflection ApS.