Urban planning processes of university complexes in Leuven

URBAN PLANNING PROCESSES OF UNIVERSITY COMPLEXES IN LEUVEN (BELGIUM) Tine Van Herck, architect and urban planner at the Planning office, City of Leuven Marc Leroy, architect, University administration and central offices, Real estate office, K.U.Leuven INTRODUCTION Leuven is located 30 km from Brussels in Flanders the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, in the economic centre Brussels – Gent – Antwerp, near the border with the French-speaking part of Belgium. It’s also situated on the important axis Ostend – Brussels – Liège – Köln (Germany). The proximity of Brussels as centre of decision making in the European Union is an advantage for Leuven, but is also a risk to become a suburb of the capital. Leuven has around 92.000 inhabitants. Thirty thousand of them live in the city centre. The university has 32.500 students, between 20.000 and 25.000 stay ‘op kot’, they have a student flat, mostly in the city centre. The presence of the student population causes a lot of pressure on the housing market. About 80% of the university students is accommodated in privately rented student houses, 20% mostly junior students is provided in university accommodation. The number of jobs in Leuven is approximately 67.000. Fourthy percent of the jobs are situated in education and health. The K.U.Leuven and the University hospitals employ more than 16.000 people. At the same time, we can find 15.000 jobs in knowledge-oriented companies related to the university. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW The city of Leuven appears in historical documents for the first time in the 9th century. In the year 884 the plundering Vikings settled around an old fortification at the Dijle river. In spite of this strategic location, it was not until around the 11th-12th century that Leuven began to develop as an important trading centre. As a typical Flemish town in that era, it had a flourishing textile industry in the 13th century. The cloth trade was corner stone of prosperity. Leuven became an administrative and commercial centre, the capital of the Duchy of Brabant. Town walls, churches, monasteries and abbeys were built. Although in the 14th century, the cloth trade lost its importance and the Dukes of Brabant move to Brussels, a new golden period appears in the 15th century with the foundation of the university and the beginning of a still growing international brewing industry. The Town Hall and the Saint Peter’s church are magnificent examples of gothic architecture. The town still owes much of its character to the numerous university colleges dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, many of which renovated in the 18th century. The beautifully restored Great Beguinage houses students and guest professors. Together with the old colleges, the Beguinage give Leuven the stylish face of a university town with a tradition. The building of the canal and the expansion of the brewery create a growth for trade and population. The French Revolution made an end to this prosperity. The most significant development for Leuven in the 19th century was the building of the railway station and the construction of the Bondgenotenlaan, the main street, leading to it. The two World Wars in the 20th century destroyed much of Leuven and a great deal of the reconstruction work lasted into the nineteen-sixties. In 1977 the surface of Leuven extended with some surrounding communities. Since 1995 Leuven regained its role as capital of Flemish Brabant. Founded in 1425 by Pope Martin V, the university bears the double honour of being the oldest extant Catholic university in the world and the oldest university in the Low Countries In its history of nearly six centuries, the University of Leuven also knew some periods of misfortune. In 1797, the French government closed the university. In 1817, the university reopened as a state university, under impulse of the Dutch king. The university became the Catholic University again in 1835 after the Belgian independence. More recently, the two World Wars of the twentieth century deeply scarred the university. Belgium’s progression towards federalism and the granting of autonomous status to the linguistic communities led to the institution in 1970 of two independent universities with a shared past. The Dutch-speaking K.U.Leuven remained in Leuven and the French-speaking Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) moved to Brabant wallon and Brussels, founding Louvain-la-Neuve (“New Leuven”, south of Brussels) and l’UCL-Bruxelles in Woluwé Saint-Lambert. Louvain-la-Neuve is the only ‘new town’ ever built in Belgium. The foundation of the Association K.U.Leuven starts a new cooperation with 12 Flemish technical colleges and K.U.Brussels, according the implementation of the Bologna Declaration. Not only the aim to federalism but also the number of students was probably one of the reasons to split into two new universities in 1970. In 1970, the university KUL-UCL has 27.000 students with an expected growth to 36.000 in 1975. Today’s number of students at both universities together is more than 50.000. In a period of five year, 13.000 students and 1.500 staff members left Leuven and gave the city literally some space. Many buildings of the university had no more use. Several buildings have been sold. The division did not cause a global new policy on urban planning, but more a confirmation of the development already started. The university should concentrate on three areas. - the faculties of the Group Humanities stay in the city centre in clusters around the central city park. - the Group Science, Engineering and Technology concentrate and extent on the campus of Arenberg. - the Group Biomedical Sciences move to a new location outside of the city centre, known as Gasthuisberg The average investment in university building projects for the next years is 25 million euro with a priority for Gasthuisberg, but important projects also in Arenberg and major renovation projects in the city centre. Each of the areas is asking for an appropriate approach. URBAN PLANNING PROCESSES FOR THE CITY CENTER In the city centre university buildings are concentrated in well-defined parts of the city. Most of the buildings are monuments. Projects proposed by the university are mostly renovations of monuments with or without an extension. In the city centre, every project is evaluated individually because the integration in the existing urban morphology is essential. An example of a university project in the city centre is the faculty of economics. It is a larger complex including an old historical university college. It was renovated in the early nineties. The building complex is very articulated due to the irregular form of the site. URBAN PLANNING PROCESSES FOR ARENBERG The Campus Arenberg is the science campus, but here you also find sport facilities and a lot of student housing. It is a very green and beautiful area with a rich historical past. For the city administration, it is very important to keep this green character. In fact, the Campus Arenberg is kind of a huge park next to the inner-city. Although it is propriety of the university, it is always open to the public. The area can be divided in several sub areas. The different sub areas all have different characters. Therefore, it is important to have an appropriated approach for each sub-area. The urban planning practice in Belgium provides us with some instruments to organise the planning and to define the approach for each sub-area. The first instrument is “the regional land-use plan”. It was made by the Flemish government in 1977 with later adaptations. This plan defines the land-use for each building block (ex. red colour is residential area). The plan applies for everybody (individuals and public organisations). The administrations use it to grant or refuse building permits. Often, for example for the Campus Arenberg, the regional land-use plan does not give enough details. It is too general and it has become obsolete. This makes it sometimes difficult to judge in an honest way. The second instrument is the “structure plan Leuven”. It is made by the city-administration and approved by the Flemish government in 2004. This bulky document describes the vision on the future development of Leuven. It defines the larger structures with definition of strategic projects, actions and priorities. The main disadvantage of this plan is that it applies only for the city administration. It is kind of a policy document. In fact the structure plan... - formulates long term vision about spatial development of Leuven - determines global lay-out & organisation of areas - defines objectives & priorities - proposes actions - reinforces cohesion of spatial policy in Leuven - does not deal with individual parcels - does not serve to grant/refuse building-permits - is based on choices (sometimes between opposite interests) - “acts” in the interest of the common good For the Campus Arenberg the structure plan specifies explicitly that a master plan have to be made. The master plan must outline the future development of the area taking into account the demands and expansion plans of the university. This brings us to the third instrument “the master plan”. The university and the city recently made a master plan together. The “Masterplan Arenberg” formulates the common vision on the future development of this area. It has no legal power but must be seen as the framework for future projects. When we translate the master plan into a legal document, it becomes “a spatial implementation plan”. A spatial implementation plan can be made by, either the City, or the Province, or the Region. Depending on the importance of the development it is decided who would make it. Nevertheless, the Flemish government always has to approve the plan. In contrast with the master plan, the spatial implementation plan is a clear legal document that applies to everybody. It defines the land-use in a more detailed way than the land-use plan. It also contains specifications about footprint, implantation, building height… It is a more detailed and legal base to grant and approve building permits. In the case of Campus Arenberg a spatial implementation plan would be very practical both for city administration as for the university. The city has a fixed frame to evaluate the extension demands and is sure of the conservation of the beautiful green area. The university has clear view on future extension possibilities and future building-permits will pass faster. URBAN PLANNING PROCESSES FOR GASTHUISBERG The roots of the university hospital are situated in the city centre. From 1426, the Faculty of Medicine organized practical medical education in the Sint-Pieter hospital, founded in 1080, from 1426. In the period between the two world wars, several 'hospitals' were built, that later would form the Sint-Rafaël hospital. Due to the division, the U.C.L would get its own new hospital. Against the background of a long term planning, a second decision was made to build a highly specialized academic hospital outside of the city centre for the Dutch-speaking part, to replace the antiquated Sint-Rafaël and Sint-Pieter hospital. The necessary extensions to become an important university hospital in Western Europe could never been realised without irreparable damage to the city centre. The relocation of the hospital in an undeveloped area gives the opportunity to start with a new concept. The new hospital was built on a human scale, no high-rise buildings but a chain of smaller blocks with small open and green spaces between. The distance to the former hospital is only one kilometre, so there was no need to move the whole hospital immediately. In 1975 the first part opens. The past decades the other parts of the hospital and the academic functions for education and research followed in successive phases. Nevertheless, the concept never fit totally. The site develops in a rather organic manner. The court-yards create only emptiness between the buildings. The buildings have a similar and monotonous architecture. Five years ago the mayor asked a global vision for the further development of “Gasthuisberg”. Under the authority of the university, a master plan was made. Gasthuisberg is a developing city with the density of a real city. Streets, squares, buildings are structural elements in this morphology. Concentrate the buildings within the ‘ringroad’ with surrounding green lungs. The campus functions as a heart. A heart with chambers which have their own identity but working together for a common purpose. Research, education, hospital, ambulatory-care are parts of a new health science campus. A fifth area will make the functional link to the city centre. This area is meant to be the place for urban functions as a hotel, small shops, student housing… A new vertical axis, only for pedestrians, structures the inner circulation in addition to the existing horizontal axis For the moment, the master plan is not in accordance with the regional land-use plan. In this case we need also to translate the master plan in a spatial implementation plan. The cooperation to do this has already started between city-authorities and university. The scope of the development brings also other issues up for discussion: - Mobility: how employees, students, patients and visitors will reach the campus in the future? How can we stimulate the use of public transport? - Infrastructure (ring road and parkings): how can we construct the road so there is no through traffic from the highway to the city centre? Can the parking serve as suburban parking for events who take place in the city centre for instance at night or in the weekend? - Public services: which public, urban functions can settle on Gasthuisberg without creating a commercial battle with the city centreedition: 1status: publishe