Zoetermeers Dagblad | Zoetermeer students present their projects Meerzicht

Last Monday, April 11, Mayor Michel Bezuijen awarded prizes to students from Alfrink College and ONC Parkdreef for the best ideas of the school program Make Meerzicht Mooi! At ONC Parkdreef, the Skatepark plan won against Ezra, Wahed, Jairo, Jimi, Sydney, Jordan (mavo 3). For Alfrink College, the Study Café plan, designed by Diya, Serenity, Matthijs, Jake, Fatima and Luna (vwo 4), won an award.

The students were allowed to think about redesigning parts of the Meerzicht district in Zoetermeer to make it more sustainable. Among other things, they considered the question of how best to design the outdoor space. They did this in response to the neighborhood scan that took place in 2019.

Mall
Improvement of Meerzicht is urgently needed, the students concluded. A lot is broken, dirty and you don’t feel safe everywhere. They planned to make the shopping center, the plinths – ground floor – of the large apartments and the skate park more attractive. To do this, they sympathized with the residents and watched how they experience the places themselves.

skate park
Sport, exercise and meetings are healthy and you can do it at the Abdissenbos skate park. But students of this winning plan see that it is not used much anymore because the iron construction is unsafe and it looks old. It should be replaced with concrete. They also believe that there should be two separate fields instead of the combined football and basketball field, as there are often disputes over who can use the field.

Study coffee
In Meerzicht there is a need for space to study or work in peace, think the winners of the study café project. That’s why they are transforming a few garage boxes under the Laveibos apartment into a bright and colorful space with tables and plants. There you can sit quietly if there is too much noise in the apartments above. They also improve the space around the apartments, which often seems dangerous because the ground floor of the buildings is dark and closed.

Make the lake view beautiful!
In autumn 2021, 120 students (vwo 4) from Alfrink College and 200 students (mavo 3) from ONC Parkdreef were challenged to think about the Meerzicht district in Zoetermeer. On Monday, the awards were presented in the council chambers of City Hall. The expert jury consisted of: City councilor Jakobien Groeneveld, Ineke Monshouwer, employee participation at De Goede Woning, Anna Vreugdenhil, headmistress of De Regenboog primary school, Ellen Perik, area manager for the Meerzicht Quality Incentives Scheme and Judith Schotanus, coordinator of Zoetermeer Point Architecture. The school program is organized by the ArchitectuurPunt Zoetermeer in collaboration with the municipality of Zoetermeer, Alfrink College and ONC Parkdreef.

Photo: Ad Jansen