STUK

STUK is a Leuven multi-room arts centre, with concert settings running from STEK’s 155-capacity underground club to a Labozaal configuration for 300. Its draw is the scale of its compound: a 10,000-square-metre former university complex, recast as a public-throughfare building where stages, studios and the STUKcafé share a central courtyard.

A student centre becomes an arts complex

STUK began on 19 October 1977 as ’t Stuc, the Student Centre created by Leuven students from the Kultuurraad in a social-sciences campus block on Van Evenstraat. A café, small hall and workshops made it a practical cultural base; film, theatre and music formed part of the programme.

A major reshaping came on 1 July 2001, when Stuc and the KLAPSTUK dance festival merged as STUK. In January 2002, it entered the renovated former Arenberg Institute on Naamsestraat, transformed by architect Willem Jan Neutelings; inaugural events followed on 10 and 11 January. The new home supported a broader artistic field and a remit reaching beyond the student population.

Its latest building chapter ran from November 2021 through June 2023. Neutelings-Riedijk Architects led upgrades centred on accessibility, energy use and outdoor circulation, adding lifts, ramps, clearer routes and renewed public areas.

What the room offers now

Expect a curator-led, cross-disciplinary bill: jazz, electronic, alternative, indie and classical work sit alongside dance, film, media art and performance. STEK’s participation model welcomes individual makers and organisations with one-off or recurring projects; the room hosts concerts, parties and audiovisual work. For gigs, the useful specifics are a soundproof below-courtyard room, fixed bar and standard sound-and-light plan. Elsewhere, halls face the central patio and offer wheelchair access, while the Auditorium seats 250.