Leuven - City park

The Sint-Donatus city park (approx. 2.4 ha) is an important, green and historically valuable place in the centre of Leuven. Located amidst a cluster of popular and tourist attractions in the city centre and set in densely built surroundings, it is likely to be discovered as a hidden green oasis.

The park was first created, on the remains of the medieval city walls, between 1869 and 1875. It was executed according to the winning competition design by Jacques Rosseels and Julien Goyers. The designers ensured a smooth transition between the various plots purchased and level differences, preserving large parts of the historical city walls and developing the park as a whole in the tradition of the nineteenth-century English landscape park. Important style elements in the park include the bandstand, the tower fragment as a folly, the wall fragment of the city fortifications, ponds with fountains, cascades and rockeries. A stately avenue of trees connects the entrance gate on Tiensestraat to the rest of the park, where winding paths and various green areas with monumental trees form a whole. The pattern of paths and vistas arouses curiosity and invites further exploration.

At the end of the twentieth century, the park was listed as a monument and cityscape and a thorough overall restoration followed. Today, however, the park is in poor condition and looks neglected. To set the enhancement of the park in motion, a management plan was approved by the Flanders Heritage Agency in 2021. The city of Leuven wants to continue the enhancement by appointing a design team to execute a master vision and development plan for the city park.

Motivation and overarching vision

In 2023 the city park is still an intensively used meeting place for the neighbourhood, for residents, students and visitors to the city. However, the context of the park has changed considerably since its construction in the nineteenth century, in urban and social terms. In the dynamic city of Leuven, it is to be expected that this context will continue to change in the future. Along with urban development, the use of the park itself has also changed and grown in intensity. The needs and requirements of users and the way different target groups use the park today give rise to conflictual situations. At the same time, the heritage value of the city park is under pressure and the plants are also suffering from the current use and from climate change.

The city park is particularly important as a robust green oasis in the city. The commissioning authority therefore wishes to achieve the following objectives in a participatory manner, based on the general vision of the management plan.

Objectives

Restoration and conservation of the park as listed heritage with associated monuments, natural and landscape heritage.

Creating added value in a contemporary, dynamic and urban context by developing:

• sustainable and climate-adaptive public space with a focus on nature development, framed within the broader city-wide green plan;
• the relation of the city park as a green oasis with its nearby surroundings;
• contemporary forms of use and park experience that meet the needs and requirements of the relevant target groups and are accessible to them. Social issues must be explored in depth and addressed in an innovative way.

Expectations as regards the design team

We are looking for a design team that can tackle the landscape, ecological, social, historical-architectural and technical aspects of the park in a participatory manner. The team should therefore include the necessary experts in these fields.

The study assignment comprises two phases:

1. Phase 1: all-inclusive study assignment for the drafting of a master vision and a development plan for the enhancement and restoration of the Sint-Donatus city park in Leuven with a participatory process. In this first phase, we ask the design team to develop a refreshing, future-oriented and innovative master vision to achieve the above objectives. Through design research, a vision will be developed of the spatial function of the park for Leuven city centre and the relation between the park and its immediate surroundings. The objectives of the management plan and the functional programme of the project file will be refined through a participatory process to be elaborated. Based on this master vision, a development plan with cost estimate will be drawn up.
2. Phase 2: all-inclusive study assignment for the drafting and realization of an execution project for the enhancement and restoration of the city park. The planning and phasing of the works is to be drawn up by the team in collaboration with the city of Leuven. It makes maximum use of potential heritage grants.

Included in the assignment and fee

PHASE 1

• architecture
• heritage
• stability
• techniques
• layout of the surroundings
• participatory process.

PHASE 2

• architecture
• heritage
• stability
• techniques
• layout of the surroundings
• process accompaniment of the execution.

Excluded from the assignment and the fee

• Surveying
• soil investigation
• safety coordination
• archaeology
• EIA experts, etc.

Fee

• PHASE 1: Drafting the master vision and development plan for the enhancement and restoration of the Sint-Donatus city park in Leuven with a participatory process: Fixed sum: €70,000 (excl. VAT)
• PHASE 2: The drafting and realization of an execution project for the enhancement and restoration of the Sint-Donatus city park in Leuven:
  - Layout of the surroundings fee range between 7.5–9% (excl. VAT) (on part of the works)
  - Architecture, stability and techniques: the fee is determined using an adjustment coefficient on the basic fee percentage according to the engineering association KVIV salary scales (with a deviation of maximum 1.5% more or less on the basic fee rate).

Selection conditions 

Project team

• A project manager with at least 5 years’ experience on a public project.
• At least 1 landscape architect or urban planner or architect.

3 reference projects

• 2 references show experience with landscape design and/or vision projects, one of which is a combination of a landscape project in an urban context.

The following holds for these reference projects:The reference explains what role the designer fulfilled in the submitted project.

• The references show how the designer dealt with the existing context and the surroundings.
• The reference projects can be built, under construction or at the (preliminary) design stage. Competition entries are also allowed.

Selection and awards criteria

See the selection guideline