Hertogensite
Leuven (BE)
Hertogensite lies in the centre of Leuven and is being transformed from a grey concrete site into an attractive green lung inside a densely built-up urban area: a neighbourhood where architecture and public space do not merely reinforce one another, but complete one another.
The starting point was a closed block. Aerial photographs of the site before the works show car parks, service yards and large institutional buildings filling the space between the surrounding streets, with almost nothing green and no way through for anyone who had no business there. The plan opens that block up and gives the ground back to the city.
The site is laid out as a series of squares and public parks, each with a character of its own. What holds them together is a deliberate choice of native planting and a single family of materials, so that the whole reads as one place rather than a row of separate projects. Water runs along the edge of the central park, with a paved path and benches on its bank; the lawn rises gently towards the housing, and young trees are planted loosely enough to let the grass carry the space.
Because the quarter is lived in as well as walked through, the planting is chosen for what it does across the seasons and for the amount of care it will realistically receive. The result is a sustainable living environment for residents and visitors of every age, in the middle of the city.
The project is developed by Resiterra.
