City of Leuven

Busy connecting street gets greener and much less asphalt

Constantin Meunierstraat is a gray, busy connecting street in Leuven. By the end of 2025, the city of Leuven is rebuilding it with reclaimed materials, as much greenery as possible and as little asphalt as possible. To acclimate residents to the future street, Leuven laid out a trial layout with trees, green spaces and a circular pavilion in late 2023.

Green areas and green zones
To discourage cut-through traffic, the city introduced one-way traffic from the ring road toward the center in most of the street. This left only one lane for car traffic and freed up space to plant trees, green spaces and green zones. Those green areas and zones slow down traffic, give the street a fresh look and allow rainwater to seep into the ground better. In the green zones, everyone can sit on the grass and enjoy the coolness of the trees.

Circular neighborhood square
One of the squares in the street the city set up as a neighborhood square, again with lots of greenery. Atelier Circuler built an open pavilion there from wood and metal recovered from construction projects. Old plastic banners from the city were recovered to cover the roof. The pavilion allows residents of the street to host neighborhood events. Anyone who wants to can meet there to chat, picnic or relax a bit. Also Leuven self recovered materials. The coping stones came from other streets in town. 

Heating with own heat grid
As one of the Pilot Cities in Europe, the City of Leuven is also investigating the possibility of installing a heat network in the street that uses renewable energy sources such as geothermal energy. In this way, all residents who want to connect can heat themselves with green heat. That heat grid fits perfectly into the Pilot Cities project that helps cities test and succeed in the transition to green energy.

Participation process
Leuven also involved local residents in the pilot and reconstruction process. Based on their feedback, in 2024 the city adjusted the trial setup and the final design of the reconstruction was established. Leuven is also keeping residents informed about the study and construction of the heat grid.

The reconstruction of the Constantin Meunierstraat is part of the European Horizon2020 project JUSTNature of which Leuven is one of the pilot cities. With JUSTNature, Leuven is using nature-based solutions to reduce and counteract the effects of climate change in the city.