The UNamur project combines a sports hall and 85 student housing units in a compact and legible composition. Turning density into an opportunity. That is the guiding principle behind the UNamur project: concentrating the built volume to create more open ground, more landscape and more places for people to meet, benefiting both the campus and its surroundings.

The design was driven by the ambition to minimise the building footprint. By stacking the sports hall and the student housing rather than placing them side by side, the project frees up as much open ground as possible. Taking advantage of the site’s natural slope, the multi-sports hall is partially embedded into the terrain. This approach reduces the building’s visible height, preserves a coherent urban skyline at the neighbourhood scale and brings natural daylight into the spaces that require it. Above, the student residences are organised in two lighter volumes built in timber structure around a shared garden.

This compact footprint creates generous permeable and planted outdoor spaces, connected to the existing landscape network, including the RAVeL.

The roof of the sports hall becomes a suspended garden extending the students’ shared living spaces. To the north, a shared courtyard brings together pedestrian routes and access to the residences. Along Avenue des Croix du Feu, the parking area is conceived as a reversible landscape. Finished with grass-jointed paving, it can gradually evolve over time — becoming a cafeteria terrace, a garden or a pedestrian link — combining functionality, landscape and long-term adaptability. Together, these three outdoor spaces become genuine places to live. They strengthen biodiversity and encourage everyday encounters between users.

The project expresses its two programmes with clarity. The sports hall, distinguished by its red tones, conveys a robust material character. Built in concrete and clad in brick, it responds to the surrounding built context. Above, the timber-frame student residences adopt a lighter architectural expression in green tones, in dialogue with the surrounding gardens. The project's volumes, materiality and colours make its organisation immediately legible.

The same clarity informs the organisation of entrances and circulation. Each programme has its own clearly identifiable entrance, while a central gallery naturally connects the sports hall with Hénallux, facilitating everyday movement between the two institutions and reinforcing the building's role as a link within the campus.