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Zuidplein rainbow staircase winner announced

‘Of course, it’s great that my design won’, says Van Lochem, ‘but what matters more to me is that Zuidas will soon have a place that promotes the visibility, awareness and acceptance of LGBTIQ+ people.’ The designs that people were able to choose from were actually quite similar to each other. ‘That’s right. It was a deliberate choice by the council to keep it simple and recognisable and the designers obviously took that on board.’ The Progress Pride flag in the winning design consists of the familiar rainbow flag plus a triangle featuring a further five colours. The colours light blue, pink and white are taken from the transgender flag, and brown and black represent people of colour and people living with AIDS or who died from the disease.

The winning design

Rainbow gateway

Rather than an LGBTIQ+ design for the staircase covering, the original idea was to have a rainbow zebra crossing. In the end, that was not chosen because many parts of Zuidas are busy and taking selfies in places like Strawinskylaan could create some dangerous situations. ‘But I actually think this is even more special’, says van Lochem. ‘Zuidas will now have a small, colourful surprise in an eye-catching position. When the sun shines, the colours radiate in all directions and soon it will be like walking through a rainbow gateway.’

The gateway now

Realisation

The design will be on high-quality transparent film, similar to a supersticker, attached to the glass covering of the staircase between Zuidplein and Strawinskylaan. Preparation work is now underway. The outdoor temperature must be 10°C or more for the film to be attached. It’s also important that it’s not raining hard, because that will affect the adhesive layer on the film. For that reason, the rainbow staircase will probably be realised in the spring, when weather conditions are more favourable.

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