A tour around the Leuven harbour

A few weeks ago we went out for dinner to Zappaz at the Harbour and since we were a little early for our reservation, we took the opportunity to tour around the area for a short moment and document it. 

Our harbour used to be aligned by industrial buildings, depots and old brewery buildings.  For as long as I know Leuven the area is in reconversion and slowly most industrial buildings get torn down while new fancy lofts and apartment buildings are rising...some brand new, some integrating the industrial heritage a little.  As such the harbour becomes the new fancy hotspot. 

The eastside / Northside (back to AB Inbev HQ and Stella breweries, facing the Keizerberg abbey park). 

The new building housing the port authority

A new housing complex integrates the old industrial loading bridge on which the "Astronaut" sculpture by Pieter Janssen is housing since 2012. (See here what the background looked like back then). 

It looks like the astranaut is secured by the multiple cranes

The South side: 

In the south, near AB Inbev HQ the new quarter Tweewaters was one of the first modern buildings with among other "The Balk van Beel" which houses our restaurant of choice,... one of the many culinary hotspots of Leuven. 

However next to the Tweewaters, the industrial buildings remained fully with a lot of brewery depots until a few years ago. Now that seems to be all taken down and start of rebuilding.  I am really curious what will happen with the silo's as they are meant to be integrated in a new residential/ hotel/ ... area. 

The westside/Northside: 

In the west, the former city depot is now a cultural center OPEK , with a nice square in front that often serves for cultural events such as the circus festival.   It is often combined with activities in the nearby Sluispark and the area under the viaduct of the Engels Plein. 

The sculpture of the "kanaalgravers", the diggers of the canal Leuven-Mechelen which is the base of this harbour

Near the OPEK is a line of fany new appartment buildings with behind them a line of modern high student housing.  Together with the OPEK, there are 2 more bars with a terrace but in my opinion there should be several added...what's nicer than having a drink next to the water? 

 

The walk to the harbour: 

Not quite in the harbour but on our way to it: the architectural lines by the buildings in the St-Maartensdal with one of the skylines well-known towers .  "I can see that from my bedroom" exclaimed Beertje when walking by...".  Yes indeed, it's hard to miss the 115m tower. 

The 115m high tower

Here we approach the backside of the Tweewaters area where clearly there is still a lot of construction going on.