Urban mosaic: a new arts centre gives a provincial Belgian city in urban square and 10 theatres for performing arts - Interior Design - Leuven is the city

Architectural Review, The, Jan, 2003 by Penny McGuire

The STUK is one of the best and most innovative art houses in Belgium, known particularly for theatre and dance. Founded as a student arts club in the 1970s, in the ancient university town of Leuven (Louvain), it is an independent body, funded by the state, city and university.

Penny McGuire

Until very recently the STUK was spread about the town in a number of buildings. But with the acquisition of a lease from the university on a large part of the Arenberg Institute, a complex that once housed the university's chemistry department, the STUK has been able to concentrate its activities in one place and has transformed itself into a single, identifiable arts centre. This provincial Brabantine town now has a new public space and 10 new theatres embedded in its centre.

The centre was designed by Neutelings Rjedijk Architecten as an intricate piece of urban mosaic, made up of buildings and spaces for all kinds of performing and visual arts, as well as spaces for reception halls, teaching areas and administration. Each part of the mosaic, whether historic, new or refurbished, has a distinctive character while forming part of a unified whole.

When acquired, the site consisted of an irregular block of buildings, most of them dating from the beginning of the last century, stepped down from Naamsestraat on the east to Schapenstraat on the west and arranged around an inner court. Having been largely vacant for a longtime, the physical fabric of the complex required a great deal of work and, in the case of the south wing, demolition.

New buildings of reinforced concrete have been faced with red brick with windows of enamelled steel sections, hammer finished in grey. Existing buildings in a reasonable state were cleaned up and, where necessary, repaired. Wherever possible, original structures were retained and finishes renewed. So, the 100-year old auditorium in the north wing has been preserved in its original state but equipped with modern services; in the nineteenth-century east wing on Naamsestraat, the cast-iron columns and parquet floors of the Zuilen (columns) rooms on the first and second floors have been restored and the volumes insulated; one has been turned into a new gallery, the other devoted to the university's cultural studies course. On the ground floor, the cafe-restaurant was once a chemistry lab. High-ceilinged, columned, and flooded with light from tall windows, it seems always to have been part of the grand-cafe tradition.

New insertions into the old include the silvery shed roof over the east wing which diffuses north light into an airy new studio on the top floor, with big windows onto Leuven. Floating over the building at the highest point of the site it is a new landmark on the city skyline. The structure spans the width of the complex from south to north, and faces onto a sunken forecourt on Naamsestraat where huge letters supporting a surrounding frame announce the STUK's presence. A foyer has been realized as a covered street space, its grey concrete flooring and floor lamps continuing the exterior aesthetic. A new double stairway leads to the cafe above.

Forecourt and foyer are the beginning of a system of public spaces stepping down through the complex and linking the main entrance with the secondary one on Schapenstraat.

At the heart of the STUK is the inner court and an outdoor foyer with entrances to the most important theatres. From here a monumental stairway leads west down the slope to yet another courtyard on Schapenstraat. These exterior spaces are full of life. Used for impromptu performances, they are informal meeting places for performers, spectators and audiences, students and city inhabitants.

Neutelings Reidijk's architecture, expressed in a tough industrial vocabulary, has a sculptural and, at times, theatrical intensity. Design of new parts of the centre creates a host of bays, lookout towers, balconies, stairways, alleys and terraces. To avoid having a collection of hermetic dark boxes, theatre interiors are rich and diverse; and in their design the architects have manipulated light, perspective, and the connections between buildings and with exterior spaces. The Grote theatre, replacing part of the south wing and sheltering the foyer on the inner courtyard's west side, exudes a sombre kind of exuberance; the ambiance suggests a combination of urban square, living room and old machine factory. Grey walls (oiled concrete, decorated with bas-relief zigzag and brass rosettes) encompass bays, balconies, loggias and gateways; a grey floor (oiled ash parquet) is set with seating covered in rough brown fabric which can be converted into long sofas. Above, fixed bridges support technical equipment, an d to one side a 2m deep bay with an enormous window onto the inner courtyard forms a kind of side-stage engaging public attention.

To the east of the Grote, the gold, red and blue interior of another new theatre, the intimate Ensemble (for rehearsals and the university's ensemble orchestras), is illuminated by a triangular upper window of opalized glass. A sloping ceiling rising to a height of 8m, prefigures the angle of tiered seating for the (Buiten) outdoor theatre on the roof. Connected to the cafe in the south wing and Grote theatre at the back, this is an urban enclosure of brick walls and concrete tiers coloured terracotta. Backcloths and actors can be lowered from a tall watchtower. Slotted in at the lower level of this new section as the ground falls away is a black padded cinema fitted out with capacious seating in blood-red plush.