About maakleerplek
Everyone can learn to make
Leuven's open making and learning place at the Vaartkom — a place in Leuven, for everyone.
- Address
- Stapelhuisstraat 13-15
3000 Leuven - Open hours
- Regular opening hours per lab
- info@maakleerplek.be
Our vision
A city has a future when its residents can make, repair and understand things themselves — not merely consume what others make.
We are working towards a Leuven that keeps learning out of curiosity, that repairs instead of throwing away, that understands its technology instead of merely undergoing it, where art and technology meet, and where people get to know each other before things go wrong.
Everyone can learn to make.
Leuven Learning Ecosystem (LLES)
At maakleerplek, everyone can make it. That is also the slogan of LLES, the Leuven Learning Ecosystem: a partnership of Leuven learning places, co-funded by the European Union through Europa WSE. Each learning place brings more creativity, sustainability and curiosity to all people of Leuven in its own way.
Under the motto “1+1=3” we join forces to put informal learning, making and circularity on the map — in Leuven and far beyond. maakleerplek is the lead partner of the project, which runs from 2025 to 2027.
LLES is co-funded by the European Union (Europa WSE).
Who is part of LLES?
- maakleerplek vzw (High Tech Lab and Graphic Lab)
- MAAKbar vzw (TextileLab and Tool Library)
- Maakbaar Leuven vzw (Repair Hub Electro)
- de drukkerij
- Atelier Circuler
- Campus Corso
What we do
We make room
Open, affordable and flexible studios, machines and materials — shared instead of owned, with room for what nobody has thought of yet.
We spark curiosity
Learning here doesn't start with a course but with the question “how does that work?”. We are the community where that question always finds someone willing to look with you.
We go out and fetch people
We don't wait for people to find us. Together with schools, learning shops and outreach workers we reach those least likely to come by themselves — because the relationship does the work, not the machine.
We repair
Repair before replacement, reuse before recycling, recycling before throwing away. That is how we keep materials, knowledge and talent in the city.
We give art a place at the heart
Artists work here alongside technicians, children and entrepreneurs. They bring the questions, the imagination and the perspective no machine park delivers.
We hold the fabric together
Everyone has a role here, and needs the others for it. Whoever takes something here also brings something — time, talent, knowledge you pass on.
We leave everything better than we found it
The people, the materials, the place. And we also show what failed, because that is where the learning is.
Location
maakleerplek is located in the former industrial heart of Leuven at the Vaartkom, at Stapelhuisstraat 13-15.
We share the "Molens van Orshoven" building with various makers and organisations who share our vision.
Stapelhuisstraat 13-15
3000 Leuven