Park Meerstad – Jeroen Doorenweerd and Matthijs Dijkstra (2020)
Realised art in public spaces
Park Meerstad is the largest public land art project in the Netherlands. It is an area of 10 hectares near the Woldmeer lake in Meerstad. The unique design for the park comes from the hands of visual artist Jeroen Doorenweerd and LAOS Landscape Architecture. It became a true collaboration between the artist and landscape architect Matthijs Dijkstra. Both men took the entire park in hand, with the result: not art in a park, but a total story. A hilly park which contains natural elements such as stepping stones and a wooden cable car. A completely straight concrete bicycle path crosses the hilly landscape, and it has been very nicely designed and forms a unique contrast with the unpredictability of the hills. Art and nature come together in Park Meerstad.
The development of the park is a collaboration between the CBK, the Municipality of Groningen and Bureau Meerstad, and the residents had their say too.
Noorderbreedte, the northern magazine about landscape, identity and sustainability, ran a special feature about Park Meerstad in its summer 2020 issue. In the feature, the park is looked at from many angles. Read how residents and experts walk around the park and give their view. In the interview with the artist and landscape architect, find out how they each worked together based on their own discipline. And discover how this district and this park are in keeping with our building tradition in Paul Roncken’s essay