27th International conference on

Passive and Low Energy Architecture

Visit of Louvain-la-Neuve

Friday15 July, 11.15 – 13.00

The young city of Louvain-la-Neuve was born from a conflict between French and Dutch speakers in the 1960's. Until then, the Université de Louvain, founded in 1425 by pope Martin V, 30 km east of Brussels, grouped French and Dutch speakers.But in the late 1960's, tensions arose between Walloon (French speakers from the south of the country) and Flemish (Dutch speakers from the north of the country) students because the latter considered that a French language university was not appropriate on Flemish soil. The French part of the Université de Louvain was then obliged to leave the Flemish soil and main of the Faculties moved to Ottignies (south of Brussels) while the Faculty of medecine invested a site in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre (Brussels) : so was born the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) in Louvain-la-Neuve and in Louvain-en-Woluwe. Dutch part of the university stayed in Leuven and became the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL).

When the university decided to move to Ottignies, the future site of Louvain-la-Neuve was still open fields and woods. Along with to the project of the new university, a new city emerged. It was mainly thought by Michel Woitrin (administrator) et Raymond Lemaire (urbanist). They wanted it traditional, at human scale, and meant to promote meetings and exchanges. The first stone was laid on February 2nd, 1971 while the transfer of the different faculties took place between 1972 (Faculty of Science) and 1979 (Faculty of Philosophy and Letters).

One of the main characteristics of Louvain-la-Neuve is the importance given to pedestrian areas, in the center of the city, where cars are forbidden. Louvain-la-Neuve is in fact built in the heart of a valley, on a 39 cm-thick concrete slab. Cars, railways and parkings disappear under this 7 ha large slab. A science park, which is currently expanding, was built, at the same period in the vicinity of Louvain-la-Neuve. This proximity has resulted in many research partnerships between the university and the private companies.