{"id":2192,"date":"2025-11-21T23:01:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T23:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.collectivespaces-kuleuven.be\/?p=2192"},"modified":"2025-11-21T23:08:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T23:08:03","slug":"2192","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.collectivespaces-kuleuven.be\/?p=2192","title":{"rendered":"EXHIBITION_ 600ha KU Leuven"},"content":{"rendered":"

ACCESS LINK TO THE CATALOGUE<\/a><\/p>\n

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CURATORS:
\nHans Leinfelder
\nMaarten Gheysen
\nIgnacio Gal\u00e1n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

During the 600 years of its existence KU Leuven,\u00a0internationally better known as Leuven University, has\u00a0built up a patrimony that covers 580 ha, in short 600 ha,\u00a0of land and buildings. Besides the obvious educational\u00a0buildings, it includes a university hospital, student\u00a0housing, sports facilities, agricultural lands and forests, and even an elderly home. Situated in different Flemish\u00a0cities and municipalities, such as Leuven, Ghent,\u00a0Brussels and Sint-Katelijne-Waver, it represents a\u00a0surface area that is larger than the inner city of Leuven\u00a0itself. In light of the 600th anniversary, the Faculty of\u00a0Architecture and the Faculty of Engineering Sciences\u00a0launched a critical design reflection on how KU\u00a0Leuven, because of this privileged position, can tackle\u00a0emerging urban and societal questions, such as the\u00a0lack of student housing or the shared use of its own
\nfacilities by neighbours.<\/p>\n

110 students and 17 teachers explored over the last\u00a0two years the relationship between the city and the\u00a0university. These theoretical and practical exercises\u00a0were framed as research electives and design studio\u00a0courses of our master programmes in architecture and\u00a0in urbanism and planning. Through design research,\u00a0students asked questions, raised ideas and tested\u00a0them with design proposals. The abundant outcomes\u00a0of these courses were displayed, discussed and\u00a0curated in an exhibition in 2025 and in this catalogue.
\nThe outcomes consisted of analytical and propositional\u00a0drawings, pictures, videos, and physical models.\u00a0Important to mention is that not only teachers and
\nexternal reviewers, but also and mainly students\u00a0actively participated both in making a selection of\u00a0representative works and in designing the exhibition
\nformats.<\/p>\n

The wide spectrum of projects and the topics\u00a0they tackled were organised within six themes:\u00a0Accommodate, Adapt, Integrate, Regenerate, Share\u00a0and Connect. \u2018Accommodate\u2019 refers to student housing\u00a0and additional student facilities, \u2018Adapt\u2019 to the reuse of\u00a0built heritage, \u2018Integrate\u2019 to the introduction of collective\u00a0functions and spaces for diversity, \u2018Regenerate\u2019 to\u00a0environmental issues such as biodiversity and water\u00a0management, \u2018Share\u2019 to the shared use of spaces\u00a0and buildings with residents and other institutions, and \u2018Connect\u2019 to mobility and accessibility related issues.\u00a0These themes reflect ambitions to approach the urgent\u00a0urban challenges that cities currently face.<\/p>\n

Simultaneously, six guest contributors to reflect\u00a0on these themes. These guest academics and\u00a0practitioners are not linked to the faculty, but are far\u00a0or close related. Their personal reflections complement\u00a0the student work with an alternative line of thought. The\u00a0results of this large collective endeavour are bundled in\u00a0this rather modest exhibition and catalogue. Through\u00a0them, we hope that our visitors can explore, discover,\u00a0challenge and reformulate the relation between\u00a0university and city.<\/p>\n

The main concept of the exhibition aligns with the\u00a0\u2018600 hectare KU Leuven\u2019 theme by reflecting on our\u00a0campuses and seeking to establish stronger dialogues\u00a0with the city or other surroundings. It aims to reactivate\u00a0sites, by using some of its currently underused spaces.\u00a0By doing so, spaces are rediscovered for students and\u00a0external visitors. The potential spaces to be used in\u00a0Campus Sint-Lucas Gent in Hoogstraat, for instance,\u00a0are the cloister (together with some of the adjacent\u00a0rooms), the church, the courtyard, the back garden\u2026\u00a0The use of different adjacent spaces will stimulate\u00a0urban trajectories throughout the university campus\u00a0and building.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the exhibition invites the Faculty of\u00a0Architecture to create, together with the students and\u00a0neighbours, several small and simple installations as\u00a0reflections on how to practically address some of the\u00a0ongoing urban challenges. These will invite outsiders\u00a0to visit and occupy the campus. Some possibilities\u00a0could be a small playground, a reading corner, a\u00a0small water infiltration area and space for biodiversity\u00a0enhancement, a shared bicycle parking\u2026<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a9 images by Oph\u00e9lie Mahieu & Laurien Roelens<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ACCESS LINK TO THE CATALOGUE   CURATORS: Hans Leinfelder Maarten Gheysen Ignacio Gal\u00e1n   During the 600 years of its existence KU Leuven,\u00a0internationally better known as Leuven University,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2193,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,8,1,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-masters-dissertation","category-lectures","category-other","category-publications"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.collectivespaces-kuleuven.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.collectivespaces-kuleuven.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.collectivespaces-kuleuven.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.collectivespaces-kuleuven.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.collectivespaces-kuleuven.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2192"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.collectivespaces-kuleuven.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2206,"href":"https:\/\/www.collectivespaces-kuleuven.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2192\/revisions\/2206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.collectivespaces-kuleuven.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.collectivespaces-kuleuven.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.collectivespaces-kuleuven.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.collectivespaces-kuleuven.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}