In 1897, Joseph Denys (1857-1932) asked Augustin Van Arenbergh (1870-1937) to design a new “Institut de BactĂŠriologieâ€? on a site between the current Vital Decosterstraat and Sint-Maartensstraat in Leuven. Today, the eclectic main building of the Bacteriological Institute is protected as a monument but has lost its former glory and is out of use since 2005. At the end of the nineteenth century the Bacteriological Institute in Leuven, the first of its kind in Belgium, was driven by a progressive scientific spirit that can still be witnessed in the functional and sober interior. The necessity of horses for the scientific research led to the building of a significant stable complex, designed by Van Arenbergh as well. Today these stables do not exist anymore. They have been demolished during the 1960s and replaced by a new medical school (Rega-school). From this moment onwards, the Bacteriological Institute was taken out of its original context, which led to the unrecognizability of its original functioning. A later extension of the Rega-school from 1983 has been built at 1,25m next to the Bacteriological Institute, blocking off space, light and air. The revalorization of this lost site became the
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main narrative of this integrated project work where each step (context, analysis, value assessment, conservation vision) is meant to provide a solid basis for the elaboration of the next step. At first, the founder and architect of the Bacteriological Institute, Joseph Denys and Augustin Van Arenbergh, will be historically contextualized, before elaborating on the current legal status of building and site, its use history and socio-economic surrounding. This contextualization will mainly be informative to prepare the upcoming analysis. Secondly, an urban, an architectural and a technical analysis will attempt to make the building understandable and uncover the real identity of the building and site. The interpretation of historical sources, an Urban Historic Landscape Characterization and an in-depth survey of the building were the main tools for this analysis. Unlike the context, the analysis is not mere information but the result of careful measurement, interpretation and understanding. It will serve as the basis for the evaluation, where the values will be extracted out of the analysis and presented in a more subjective way.