Bibliothèque des Sciences, Brutalist former library building in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
The Bibliothèque des Sciences is a brutalist building erected in 1973 by architect André Jacqmain on the Place des Sciences in Louvain-la-Neuve. Its concrete facade, with its particular architecture, has become one of the symbols of the university town; mayor Jean-Luc Roland called it the "Eiffel Tower of Louvain-la-Neuve". Since 2017 it houses the Musée L, the university museum.
Built in 1973 by architect André Jacqmain, the library was the first building on the Place des Sciences and became a symbol of the new university town of Louvain-la-Neuve, whose first stone was laid in 1971. It housed the Science and Technology Library until 2015, when the collections moved to the Van Helmont building. Since 18 November 2017 it has housed the Musée L, and in June 2025 it was listed as a historic monument, the second in the town after the Ferme du Biéreau.
The building transformed into the Musée L in 2017 and now serves as a central venue for university collections and exhibitions. You can see how the spaces function as a gathering place for cultural presentations and institutional displays.
The building is located on Place des Sciences in the heart of the campus and is easily accessible through the university infrastructure. Its multi-level layout features clear circulation systems that make navigation straightforward for visitors.
The concrete surfaces display visible formwork patterns that reveal the construction techniques of the era and document the brutalist principles of the 1970s. These details give the building a distinctive texture that reflects its time of creation.
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