8. January 2025

WALZWERK App: An Interactive Site Map with Tenant Search and GPS Navigation

We’ve built an interactive site map for WALZWERK, the former industrial site known from ZDF’s “Bares für Rares” and home to our studio. It helps visitors find their way around what is now a center for businesses and culture.
The WALZWERK app on a smartphone, showing a color-coded site map, tenant search and a welcome message.

WALZWERK is home to businesses in digital technology, e-commerce and education, and a popular destination for culture and leisure in the Cologne area. The 35,000-square-meter site in western Pulheim welcomes business visitors and members of the public every day. Alongside companies and studios, it houses a theater, swimming pool, restaurants, a church and artists’ workshops. With so much spread across the site, finding your way can be a challenge.

Since December, the WALZWERK app at app.walzwerk.de has been helping visitors get around:

  • Interactive site map and tenant search — Find tenants and studios quickly, see them marked on the map and follow a live route from your GPS location.
  • Real-time GPS navigation — Directions update on the map as you move towards your destination. If GPS is unavailable, the route starts at the main entrance road or the sign whose QR code you scanned.
  • No installation needed — The app runs directly in the browser. Signs with QR codes around the site help visitors find it.
  • Mobile and desktop — It works on smartphones, tablets and desktop computers, so directions can be viewed and shared anywhere, including in an email signature.
The WALZWERK app on desktop, with an interactive site map, search and labeled building areas.

Protecting visitors’ data was a priority. GPS location is used only for navigation and stays on the visitor’s device. It is neither stored nor processed for any other purpose.

WALZWERK tenants can also send guests a direct link with their studio already selected, for example in a message or an email signature:

These links are generated as you use the app and can be copied or shared directly from the browser. Tenants will also be able to embed the site map on their own websites at a later date.

The WALZWERK app connects directly to the site’s digital tenant directory, keeping information up to date and applying changes automatically.