February 2023
Re-imagining Belval

“Let’s Talk About Belval” was an educational experiment developed throughout the Fall Semester 2022. The students of the Master’s Programme in Architecture at the University of Luxembourg unpacked the spatial, social, economic, and environmental context of their own place of study—Belval.

The semester started with an intensive festival week, combining public lectures and debates, tackling Belval as a case study through different perspectives: from History and Spatial Politics, the current state of Urban Planning and Governance, the Campus and its Users, to Logistics and Infrastructure.

The exhibition “Re-imagining Belval” presents the proposals by the students, who transversally worked with tutors, external experts, neighbours, and users of Belval on a semester-long immersive on-site research project. The research groups critically explored urban politics, land and housing rights, urban commons, and the environment by evaluating the current spatial, political, and economic mechanisms operating in Belval, imagining alternative scenarios regarding the regeneration of post-industrial heritage and city-making in Luxembourg.

The students’ proposals – and resulting demands – suggest the possibility of collective affordable housing reusing old industrial facilities, autonomous student associations, community-driven intergenerational initiatives, urban ecologies and planning for non-human neighbours, soil archives, and strategies for ecological regeneration. In short: present possibilities and models to re-imagine Belval.

Exhibition February 8th – 12th, 2023

Opening: February 8th, 2023 5:30 PM
With the presence of Mr. Claude Turmes,
Minister of Energy and Spatial Planning
Main Hall Maison de Savoir, University of Luxembourg

Exhibition Brochure