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Brief explanation of the project
The Campus Hoogvliet project involves three secondary schools that want to put up new buildings together. The new school buildings will form a campus near the Zalmplaat tram stop in Hoogvliet (Rotterdam).
The three schools – Einstein Lyceum, Penta College and ROC Zadkine – will each remain identifiable. They will however share a range of facilities such as those for sport and culture. Many of the school facilities will also be made available to the inhabitants of Hoogvliet.
In a similar way, neighbourhood facilities which, like the schools, will have to be moved in the years to come, will also be housed on the Campus. These include a library, swimming pool, creche and restaurant. By combining them, all these facilities will be used more and better.
The Campus will be near the Zalmplaat underground tram station. This is at present a problem station: it is in an isolated location, is little used and is unsafe. The RET has in fact seriously considered closing it.
The Campus can turn this problem station into a success: it will all at once have a central location and will be used intensively, which will make it safer socially.
In its turn, the station will make the Campus very easily accessible. With its own station, the campus will additionally reinforce the regional function of the three schools. The links between Hoogvliet and the surrounding area will become stronger.
Hoogvliet is at present, and in the years to come, undergoing an extremely radical restructuring. Thousands of homes are being replaced. But to achieve a truly successful transformation, one needs more than just a new housing stock.
It is above all good and versatile education that will be of great value in Hoogvliet in the future. The Campus will be a powerful stimulus to numerous socio-cultural developments. It is not only the standard of education that will improve, but Hoogvliet will also become a more interesting place to live for the teachers.
The three schools have asked WiMBY! to participate in thinking about the Campus. WiMBY! has consequently brought together a broad coalition of parties devoting themselves to this ambitious project that is very important to the future of Hoogvliet and its area. This coalition comprises the Hoogvliet local authority, the Rotterdam local authority with its departments dS+V (Department of Urban Planning and Housing), DSO (Department of Municipal Education) and the RET transport company, and the Vestia and Maasoevers housing corporations. As the plans become more concrete, others will also be able to join, from the business world for example.
The construction of the campus is a complicated major task that requires very good preparation. The first plans for new buildings appeared in 1995, and according to the new plans the Campus should be complete by 2011. We can divide the intervening period into five stages:
First the previous history (Achtergronden en voorgeschiedenis), when the three schools merged their individual plans for new buildings.
Then the research period (Onderzoek en verkenning), which is still running, and in which WiMBY! is playing an important part.
The third stage (Opdracht en ontwerp), when the schools and other parties will assign an official design brief, is now approaching.
Fourthly (De bouw), this is followed by construction itself.
Finally (De Campus in gebruik), we shall gradually be able to form a picture of what it will mean once the Campus is in use.
