Ottignies-Louvain-La-Neuve

Ottignies-Louvain-La-Neuve is a city with 30,000 residents and located 30 kilometres south of Brussels in the Wallon region of Belgium. The city consists of two separate towns, Ottignies which has a long history in the region and the recently built town Louvain-La-Neuve. The part of the city which forms part of the SURE project is Louvain-La-Neuve (LLN) which is a new town built in the 1960s and 1970s to accommodate the Universite Catholique de Louvain. The land on which LLN was built belongs to the university and with that most of the residential and commercial property of the town. In addition to most of the land and property in the town belonging to a university, LLN is also unusual in that it was designed as a pedestrian city. The city centre is car-free and the residential areas providing accommodation for families are also designed to keep the impact of vehicle traffic to a minimum. A large science park, 350 retail outlets and the university provide over 12,000 jobs, and a large number of these jobs are taken by people who live outside LLN. Attractive residential areas, extensive parklands and lakes together with its wide range of services make LLN an attractive place to live. The car-free city centre attracts many shoppers and families with small children, particularly at weekends. Out of the 18,500 residents who live in LLN, 8,500 are students. The total student population is 21,000 and together with university staff and employees working for international companies on the science park the community of LLN is very diverse, consisting of 128 nationalities.