From gray to green in downtown Leuven
Constantin Meunier Street is the central axis of the Nieuw Kwartier neighborhood in the inner city of Leuven. It is a wide street that was laid out in the first half of the 20th century without any green spaces. Because it is so wide, Leuven has every opportunity to turn it into a real climate street tailored to the neighborhood, with as much greenery and sustainable and recycled materials as possible. For this, it receives financial support from the European subsidized Horizon 2020 project JUSTNature.
Participation Process
The redevelopment will start at the end of 2025. However, Leuven has already started working with the residents of the street. During several workshops, they thought about the changes in the street. To test the new street layout and show how different the street would look, the city, together with the residents, designed a trial setup. Based on the feedback from the residents, Leuven is working on the final design of the street.
Circular Trial Setup with Green Spaces and Zones
To create space for greenery and meeting places, the city introduced one-way traffic in most of the street. This way, only one lane was needed for car traffic, freeing up space to plant trees, green spaces, and zones. These green spaces and zones slow down traffic, give the street a completely different look, absorb water, and provide cooling. Because the asphalt of the street could not be broken up during the trial setup, the green zones were laid out with a thick layer of lava substrate on top of the asphalt.
Measuring the Effects
With measurements and sensors, Leuven is now examining the consequences of the trial setup. Counters measure the impact of the adjustments on traffic circulation in the surrounding streets, and the results from two weather stations and an air quality meter will help determine the final design of the street.
Circular Neighborhood
One of the squares in the street was designed by the city as a neighborhood square, again with a lot of greenery. Atelier Circuler built an open pavilion of wood and metal that was recovered from construction projects. Old plastic banners from the city were reused to cover the roof. In the pavilion, the residents of the street can organize neighborhood events. Anyone who wants to can meet there for a chat, to picnic, or to relax.
Leuven also recovered materials from other streets in the city. Among other things, the curbstones of the plant beds, the wooden railway sleepers from which the benches are made, and some concrete plant containers are recycled materials.
Heating with Own Heat Network
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. This way, all residents who want to connect can heat themselves with green heat. This heat network fits perfectly into the Pilot Cities project, which helps cities test and succeed in the transition to green energy. Leuven keeps the residents of the street informed about this research.
The redevelopment of Constantin Meunier Street is part of the European project JUSTNature, of which Leuven is one of the pilot cities. JUSTNature aims to reduce and counteract the effects of climate change in cities with nature-based solutions.
