For EUROPALIA TRAINS & TRACKS, LOCI offers a programme of courses, conferences and exhibitions related to the train and its architectural and urban impact.

LOCI — the Faculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering and Urban Planning at UCLouvain — has participated in EUROPALIA festivals since 2013. On the occasion of TRAINS & TRACKS, it has developed a specific programme focused on railway transport and its influence on the construction of our country, the transformation of our landscapes, cities and economies. The arrival of the train is associated with a great number of societal changes. It disrupted our relationship with time, space and perceptions of our environment. It is also affiliated with the emergence of a new type of building: the station.

Throughout the academic year 2020-2021, students have been invited to study certain Belgian stations, examining their specific features, trying to understand the different architectural elements that comprise them or studying the materials and lighting unique to these places. In autumn 2021, teachers and students will travel by train to Vienna and then Venice for an itinerant study programme, featuring interventions by artists, lectures on board and drawings of the passing visual sequences.

Through this multi-faceted programme, LOCI wants to restore a taste for travel, an ecological journey, allowing participants to immerse themselves in the richness of the cultures and countries they travel through. The Faculty also wants to address architectural challenges and respond to contemporary issues surrounding the transformation of districts around railway stations and the impact of rail travel on European countries.

Conference: Regards croisés sur deux gares belges
28 10 2021
18:30
UCLouvain-LOCI

A. Boulaioun and N. Nelles will speak about the architecture of railway stations in the light of their experiences in Herstal and Erezée.

Exhibition of student work: Gares et paysages ferroviaires, du relevé au dessin de perception
25 11 2021-11 01 2022
Station opening hours
Brussels Congress Station

The exhibition will showcase drawings of stations in the North-South junction of Brussels.

Conference: Paysages ferroviaires, phénomènes et perceptions
25 11 2021
18:30
Brussels-Congress Station

J.-Ph. De Visscher (UCLouvain-LOCI) will highlight the way in which trains are integrated into the city and B. Kluyskens (ERG) will discuss the impact of the speed of trains on the perception of the landscape.

Exhibition of student work: Arrêts sur images de gares 
28 10 2021-17 12 2021
Monday-Tuesday
09:00-12:00
14:00-16:00
UCLouvain-LOCI