Campus Sint-Lucas - KU Leuven

Location :

• Anynomous

  08 March 2017

  The school offers a decent architecture education with an interesting balance between artistic and technical courses. Like any architecture school students have to work hard to earn their grades. Even incoming exchange students are subjected to a heavy work load. The teachers are good (with varying degrees) and very demanding. I have the feeling that the school offers a very complete programme. There is also an international master programme that is completely in English.The school is part of a larger university of which the larger part is situated in Leuven.
  
  There are still some things that bother me however (being a full time student).
  
  First of all infrastructure (as of 2017) is far below average. The building barely has functioning ventilation and has no form of thermal insulation (mold on the single pane glass window frames). This is ironic if you know the school offers good courses about the latest technologic advances in this field. We often joke about the fact that the building is there to remind us about all the things you should not do as an architect. The list goes on. There is no decent computer room, printing is always a hassle, etc... There is a possibility to use the facilties from the campus across the street (art school campus) but the integration is not optimized (yet?). The school recently lost its cafetaria due to budget cuts, the one across the street offers ok meals for ok prices. There is no arts and crafts shop in neighbourhood to get your materials quickly. One exception: There is a good library.
  
  Arguably the integration of the school in its environment is non-existent. A lot of students come from another part of the city or live in Leuven and commute to Brussels.
  
  Somehow all of this hasn't scared me away. Despite the hard work (which is inherent to any good architecture education) and the lack of infrastructure I still think this a good school that offers students a very critical mindset with a decent theoretical background. If good infrastructure were to be present I would easily rate it 4 stars.