Arenberg Science Park

offices
Location

Boudewijnlaan
Leuven
Belgium

Year
2010
Surface area
22.191m²
Status
realized
Client
Interleuven
winning competition design
Photography
Filip Dujardin
Toon Grobet

A university town like Leuven has everything to gain from ensuring that the knowledge it accrues also generates economic value. To encourage university students and staff to launch spin-offs and start-ups, the Interleuven inter-municipal cooperative, the city and the university took the initiative to establish an innovative science park along a busy access road to Leuven. POLO designed the master plan, in collaboration with Dutch firm KCAP, and built two building complexes which house offices, laboratories and research facilities.

Plug-and-play

'Delayed entrance'

The work yard is the new ‘elevated ground level’ overlooking the natural landscape. It is the meeting point where the staff of the various research buildings meet informally. This elevated ground level is home to the semi-public functions like the cafeteria and auditorium. Each work yard offers different ways to access the buildings that are plugged into it. According to the principle of the ‘delayed entrance’, progression into the building is dramatized in gradual transitions between indoors and outdoors.

The designs for phases 1 and 2 of Cluster B constitute a balancing exercise between identity and flexibility. The office buildings and labs can house businesses of various sizes, offering them the chance to grow or shrink.

The flexible and generic interior design contrasts sharply with the rigid facades. They were conceived as an autonomous skin that gives the buildings a strong identity. The facades are not an expression of what is happening inside, but an interface behind which ever-changing activities and programmes can unfold.