KULAB

Fresh new faculty

KULAB, home to the faculty of Industrial Sciences and Biosciences in Bruges, is the result of a new collaboration between the Catholic University College of Bruges-Ostend (Katholieke Hogeschool Brugge-Oostende) and the University of Leuven (KU Leuven). KULAB is a modern, eye-catching building at the campus entrance. The fresh-looking whitewashed concrete building is the first of a series of buildings yet to be constructed, like a chain linking up the different parts of the campus. Two dissimilarly-formed elongated volumes comprise of three evenly-formed storeys with facilities for practicals and three broader, evenly-formed layers above those, housing classrooms. One striking detail is the fact that the uppermost column has been elevated, and a ‘public layer’ has been inserted in between. This transparent section of the building houses the most public facilities, such as the café and the auditorium. Another important detail is the variation in the breadths of the areas in between, creating spaces that serve as informal meeting places.