Podiumkunstensite - Leuven Performing Arts Quarter

On the former site of St. Peter’s Hospital, a new Performing Arts Quarter is designed and planned to be built in 2028. Designed by Sergison Bates architects, in collaboration with eld NV and Charcoalblue, this new cultural building will provide accessible and sustainable open spaces for performing arts and respond to the need for a cultural hub in Leuven.

The need for larger and more modern stages in Leuven led to the development of a music center and large theatre spaces. The building is aimed to be developed in alignment with the city’s ambition to become ‘European Capital of Culture’ in 2030.

Jensen Hughes collaborated closely with the architecture team to provide fire safety from concept stage to design phases. A crucial aspect of this project was developing a fire safety design that accommodates the multifunctional use of spaces, essential for meeting diverse needs. Due to its positioning in the existing heritage environment, the team of engineers was challenged to keep the design with open character and accommodate the multipurpose rooms.

We adopted a prescriptive approach to test the proposed design against current fire safety legislation including KB Basic Standards, Codex Welzijn op het Werk and VLAREM. To address the identified deviations from these standards, we used the performance-based approach, specifically through fire and evacuation simulations. These simulations also made it possible to validate a theoretically developed smoke and heat evacuation system (RWA) and to evaluate the proposed evacuation concept of the building.

The performance-based analysis involved coupled fire and evacuation simulations, during which we conducted ASET/RSET analysis with the objective of investigating the concept's safety level in terms of personal safety in the event of fire.