Future-driven learning and working spaces

Do you want to co-construct how we learn and work in 2050? Then come to Leuven City Hall on Monday 18 March and lay the foundation stone for your future-oriented learning and working environment together with other innovators from Leuven and Flanders.  

Many professional sectors are facing major changes. Not only technological innovation will have a major impact on how we will learn and work in the future, but social innovation is also taking place in many places in Flanders. We need new ways of learning and working to meet the societal challenges with new talent and new jobs. 

13:00 - 14:00 Guided tour: Future Fusion expo and studio (incl. lunch) 

During this lunch-meeting in the beautiful setting of Leuven's historic town hall, there will be the opportunity to visit the Future Fusion expo, which is the result of a 'take-over' by a group of Leuven's young people as a result of the Future Generations Lab, the first experiment of studio operation in the town hall, in the framework of Flanders Technology & Innovation. There will also be an explanation of the operation of the studio, which will occupy the second floor of the town hall until the end of 2024.

14:00 - 15:45 Presentations and debate: Future-driven learning and working environments

We invite very diverse initiatives that are currently doing innovative work in the field of learning and working environments. All over Flanders, new places of innovation are emerging, which put the debate about the transitions in our society at the centre and provide space for new forms of learning and working on the one hand, and new forms of collaboration and practices on the other. 

The Studio in Leuven City Hall is such a social design space. The Studio would like to test the model of its activities and organisational structure and of the workshop space against the insights of other innovative learning and working spaces. This will create a network of innovative initiatives that together will help prepare Flanders for the future.

14:00 - 14:15 welcome and introduction  

14:15 - 15:00 presentations of future-oriented learning and working practices 

Evi Swinnen, Timelab, Ghent 

Tom Michiels, Maakleerplek, Leuven 

Melle Smets, House of the Future, Rotterdam  

Jeanne Astrup-Chauvaux, Floating University Berlin (ENG) 

15:00 - 15:45 roundtable discussion (in English) 
Towards more future-driven learning and working spaces 

Jeanne Astrup-Chauvaux, Floating University Berlin 

Evi Swinnen, Timelab, Ghent 

Martha Delagrange, Future Generations Lab, Leuven 

Lalynn Wadera, Deputy Mayor of Education and Economy, Leuven 

Lore Baeyens, coordinator studio, intendant LECH2030 and SOM, Leuven

Moderated by Roeland Dudal, Architecture Workroom Brussels.

A closed workshop session will also take place in the morning of Monday 18 March. In the 'Workshop: the studio as societal design space', we will explore the lessons learned from the first months of the studio's operation. How do we work together in this symbolic place? What are the different roles in the process and in the collaboration? What types of space and what resources do we need? What programming supports the studio's goals? And how does the studio fulfil its role for the different networks and for Leuven's entire society?