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Sounds Like Antwerp — details
Sounds Like Antwerp cover
role Lead Developer
year 2026
tools Astro, React, JavaScript, Node.js, p5.js, Strudel, React Flow, GSAP, Vite, Vitest
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Overview

Sounds Like Antwerp was created for a Visit Antwerp brief focused on attracting younger urban travellers.

Our concept explored Antwerp’s 24/7 Pulse — using city data to show that Antwerp is constantly moving, changing and alive.

The result was an interactive platform that transforms city activity into generative music and visuals, allowing users to experience the city before visiting it.

Sounds Like Antwerp website

My role

I was the Lead Developer and owned most of the technical implementation.

Together with our project manager, I designed the system architecture and built the main technical components:

  • public website
  • city-data API and proxy layer
  • generative sound engine
  • interactive visualisation layer
  • application state
  • React Flow-based no-code tool

I worked across the full system rather than only on the frontend.

City data, sound and visuals

The platform was designed to consume external city-data sources and normalize them into a shared representation of Antwerp’s current pulse.

Signals such as traffic, crowds, noise and events can then influence both the visual and audio experience.

The sound engine was built with Strudel, while p5.js powers the generative visuals.

No-code tool

I also built a custom React Flow-based no-code interface for configuring parts of the experience without changing the underlying application code.

This made it easier for the team to experiment with instruments, behaviours and creative mappings.

Sounds Like Antwerp no-code tool

Architecture

The system was split into independent layers for data, state, sound, visuals and presentation.

External data flows through a dedicated proxy, is normalized, and is then consumed by the interactive engines.

Sounds Like Antwerp technical architecture

The main flow is:

The website itself was built with Astro, using React for the more interactive parts.

Outcome

Sounds Like Antwerp became a working prototype for turning city infrastructure into an interactive cultural experience.

For me, it was a chance to take ownership of a technically broad product — from architecture and APIs to frontend development, generative audio and creative tooling.