Agora Learning Centre
The Agora Learning Centre (Script error: The function "langx" does not exist.) is a building of KU Leuven in the Belgian city of Leuven. From its construction in the 1930s until 2006, the building was known as the Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences. Today, it houses a learning centre with lending facilities, an auditorium and several work rooms. The building is located on the Social Sciences Campus.
History
Even before the First World War, rector Paulin Ladeuze planned the construction of a new institute for pharmacy. In 1918 the university purchased a site in the Edward Van Evenstraat, and between 1931 and 1934 the Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences was built, designed by canon Jan Janssen. A memorial stone with the coat of arms of Mgr. Ladeuze and the year 1932 is still present in the building. In October 1933, the School of Pharmacy moved into the new institute. The official inauguration took place on 24 June 1934.[1]
In May 1978, the provincial authorities issued a positive opinion on the demolition of the building. According to the then development plan of the university, the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences was to be moved to Campus Arenberg in Heverlee, the campus for exact sciences. Despite this provincial advice and the university’s plans, the building remained in use by the department for several more decades. In 1992 the department was transformed into the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, which relocated in 2006 to Campus Gasthuisberg.[1]
After several years of vacancy, the Agora Learning Centre opened in the building in 2013, offering study and group work spaces for students and staff of KU Leuven.[2][3] In 2019, the renovated right wing of the building was reopened, partly thanks to the heritage campaign "Steun Agora". The auditorium in Agora was named after Emma Vorlat, the first female vice-rector of KU Leuven. The toilets in this wing are gender-neutral.[4]
Art in the Agora
In 2019, as part of a project initiated by the Committee for Contemporary Art, artist Pascale Marthine Tayou (Cameroon, 1967) installed a four-part artwork titled Sémences in the public spaces of the Agora Learning Centre. The installation comprises small artworks placed throughout the building: Chalk Cloud suspended from the ceiling in a shared first-floor study area; Les trois piquets sauvages displayed in the stairwell and L’inspiration and Pavés Pascale exhibited in the study halls. The works were given to KU Leuven on permanent loan.[5]
Literature
- Smeyers, André, Leuven vroeger en nu, Leuven, Vlaamse Drukkerij 1948, 88.
- Uytterhoeven, Rik, Leuven weleer 5: Naar de Biest en tot aan de Westhelling: Brusselsestraat, Kapucijnenvoer, Fonteinstraat,..., Leuven, Standaard, 1989, 70.
- Uytterhoeven, Rik, Neogotiek in Leuven. Cultuurhistorische stadswandelingen, Leuven, Davidsfonds, 1997, 53–54.
- De Universiteit te Leuven 1425–1985, Leuven, Universitaire Pers Leuven, 1988, 286–291.
External links
50°52′25.33″N 4°42′15.06″E / 50.8737028°N 4.7041833°E
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- ↑ 1.0 1.1 History of the building in the Van Evenstraat, KU Leuven.
- ↑ Plans for Humanities Learning Centre take shape. From empty pharmacy institute to new study complex, Veto, 22 September 2009. [dead link]
- ↑ Pharmaceutical Institute converted into Agora of KU Leuven, Studio Roma, 28 April 2013.
- ↑ KU Leuven expands Agora Learning Centre. Remarkably: all toilets are gender-neutral, Het Laatste Nieuws, 24 October 2019. Archived 20 January 2021.
- ↑ Pascale Marthine Tayou – Sémences – 2019, KU Leuven, Committee for Contemporary Art.
