Following the elections prompted by this affair, the expansion of the French-speaking part of the Catholic University of Leuven was voted upon and approved on 18 June 1968.

Put under the direction of Raymond M. Lemaire, Jean-Pierre Blondel and Pierre Laconte, this urbanistic project saw the first students and inhabitants arrive in 1972.

With the completion of university buildings and the ongoing residential development, the town experienced rapid growth, with 10,477 inhabitants recorded in 1981.

As a consequence, the town centre is built on a gigantic concrete slab, with all motorized traffic travelling underground.

Most buildings are built on the slab (la dalle), and the pedestrian area is expanding even far from the town centre featuring many mixed use overpasses and traffic calming solutions.

This constitutes an early example of the 15-minute city, with the Agora, Main square and train station in a tight central triangle reachable by foot within 15 to 20 minutes from the outermost districts.

Louvain-la-Neuve's location 30 km (19 mi) south of Brussels at the crosspoint of several important roads makes it easily reachable by car.

Construction work is constant as many more of the characteristic small two to five floor buildings made of red bricks are erected.

Due to the large student population that leaves the town during weekends and holidays, Louvain-la-Neuve can be quite empty during those periods.

It covers 2.31 square kilometres spread over the area of the town of Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve and the municipality of Mont-Saint-Guibert (30 km away from Brussels).

It is located in the centre of Louvain-la-Neuve, on the edge of a green park, Le Parc de la Source.

Although his most famous creation, The Adventures of Tintin, features prominently, his other comic strip characters (such as Jo, Zette and Jocko, and Quick and Flupke) are also present.