Begijnendijk - Masterplan Begijnendijk

At the extreme north of the province of Flemish Brabant lies Begijnendijk, quite a small borough between the towns of Aarschot and Heist-op-den-Berg. It is part of the Leuven district. The valley of the River Demer, which traverses the borough, forms the transition from the Kempen to Hageland.

Begijnendijk local council is in the unique position of owning several exceptional pieces of land at its centre. Although it is quite a small borough, this situation enables the local council to bring about a radical redevelopment of the village centre. In order to guide this long-term project in the right direction, the council has opted to have a masterplan drawn up for the whole of the village centre (about 93.5 ha).

The council wants in the first place to develop the land it owns, which makes up large parts of the centre, to give the public space a distinct structure. At the moment the village centre and the public amenities are somewhat scattered and several empty plots are used as improvised car parks. By the careful and strategic development of the right locations, Beginendijk will be able to transform itself into a cohesive centre stretching from the station to the church square, a bipolar centre as described in the local authority structure plan.

This masterplan, which is to be carried out in several stages and whose spatial/financial/market-oriented/legal feasibility is being examined, comprises the following building projects: a new multipurpose hall, renovation and new building work for the youth infrastructure, a new library, an expansion of the social services department, housing (social housing and service flats) and a few projects for the new use of the buildings thus vacated. For some of these projects the local council is itself the client, while for the others it wants to establish public-private partnerships on the basis of the masterplan.

The Open Call for the masterplan should be seen as the first stage in the development of a design vision for the landscaping and architectural design of the village centre, with particular attention to architectural quality, urban planning suitability, sustainability, feasibility, safety and process management.

The masterplan is to be divided into a number of executable sub-projects (both public space and buildings) that can be implemented by the design team. The local authority may decide to award the implementation of the entire project or parts of it to a third party. In that case the creator of the masterplan is to act as supervisor/quality controller.