Climate-resilient streets
Constantin Meunierstraat Pilot Project, Leuven
As part of Just Nature, a European project focused on nature-based solutions, Sweco and landscape architecture practice LAMA were awarded the contract by the City of Leuven to deliver a pilot installation and the full redesign and implementation of Constantin Meunierstraat.
With this pilot project, Leuven is opening a new chapter. Where asphalt and cars currently dominate, a climate corridor will emerge that captures water, provides cooling and creates more space for nature. The street will be transformed into a resilient, inclusive public space with a strong green-blue infrastructure. The design will evolve over time through experimentation, learning and adaptation.
- Expertise:
- Liveable cities
- Client
- City of Leuven
- Location
- Leuven
- Services
- Landscape vision and ecology, public realm design, participation and co-creation, ecology, hydrology
A green-blue climate corridor for Leuven
Constantin Meunierstraat and the Nieuw Kwartier neighbourhood are ideally suited to become Leuven’s first climate corridor pilot project. The existing streetscape will be reshaped into a robust green-blue structure that captures water, provides cooling and gives nature more room to thrive.
The vision is based on six principles:
- Shared space
- A street for the future that respects its past
- A green Meunierstraat, woven into the wider landscape and public-space network
- The street as a climate regulator
- A circular Meunierstraat
- A place where living and experiencing come together
Meunierstraat will no longer be solely a route for traffic, but a place where people and nature together set the rhythm of the neighbourhood.
Wouter Walschap, Project leader
Experimenting, learning and adapting
The pilot installation is the first step towards the new Constantin Meunierstraat and will be delivered in two phases. The first phase focuses on the neighbourhood’s central square and one section of the street. Through co-creation sessions and Atelier Meunier, residents, local authority teams and elected representatives will bring ideas to life in the public realm.
A tile workshop will demonstrate what removing hard surfaces, introducing greenery and creating water-storage capacity could mean for the neighbourhood. The installation will also provide space for water harvesting, demineralisation, vegetation labs and temporary activities. By testing interventions and monitoring their effects, we can learn what works and understand how people use and experience the space.
In the second phase, this approach will be extended along the full length of the street. This will include exploring the future street profile, the heritage value of key vistas and views, and opportunities for water and energy systems.
In this way, the design will develop step by step. Through experimentation, learning and adaptation, the pilot installation will help refine the integrated final design for Constantin Meunierstraat.
A collective heating plan for the future
The transformation of Constantin Meunierstraat does not stop at residents’ front doors. Alongside the green-blue redesign, the project is also exploring how local residents could collectively transition towards a future-proof, fossil-free heat supply.
A detailed design for a geothermal district heating network has already been developed. A total of 146 geothermal boreholes could meet the heating demand of all homes in the street, substantially reducing dependence on fossil fuels. The street would therefore become not only a climate corridor for water and nature, but also a place where local energy generation and collective heating can shape a new future.
Whether the network will become a reality remains to be seen. The participation process will explore the level of local support and how the system could be developed together with residents. In this way, the energy transition also becomes a shared endeavour: moving from individual heating needs towards a collective heating plan for the future.
all images ©bramgoots
