The Roosenberg Abbey in the Flanders village of Waasmunster needs to get a new function. The new owner of the building is the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), who envisions a campus on the site (Campus Roosenberg). The campus that the KU Leuven envisions should be a study- and congresscenter focused on the domain of reflection and should be a breeding ground for new education forms.

The graduation project of the chair Interiors of buildings and cities asks for a new program for the Roosenberg abbey. The Roosenberg Abbey is designed by Dom Hans van der Laan and is located in Waasmunster, Belgium. Since 2016 the Roosenberg will no longer be used as a monastery. Because of its monumental and iconic status, the KU Leuven therefor decided to transform it in an architectural study centre. This was the starting point of the graduation studio. It was our objective to form a program that would suite the Roosenberg and the Ku Leuven, but could also add a narritive to the wider context. To research the functions and sizes for the new programme we looked very closely to our own desires for a architectural study center, since we could be adressed as a future user. The main question in this study was therefor: what is our ideal program for an architectural university or study center. We also looked at precedents of monasteries to understand their architectural language, the positioning of functions and the relations between them. The project requested a clear position towards the architectural oeuvre and thinking of Dom Hans van der Laan and a clear understanding of his proportion, light and materiality. This would help to take our own position towards the Roosenberg and his surroundings and to reinterpret his design principles in to a contemporary building. This helped to create our own programme and narrative for the project on how to reuse and extend the Roosenberg Abbey.