On 4 December 2025, the VUB and ULB will award honorary doctorates to striking cultural voices who embody, describe or imagine Brussels in an exceptional way. Musician Stromae, authors Lize Spit and Amélie Nothomb, and illustrators Ever Meulen and François Schuiten have each, in their own field, made a powerful contribution to the urban, social and cultural story of Brussels. Writer Lize Spit has lived in Kuregem for 15 years and shares why the city has captured her heart.
In my novel Ik ben er niet, Brussels plays a role—more like a street map, a backdrop, and not necessarily a city in all its layers. But in my columns, I write often about the neighbourhood where I live, Kuregem. The area regularly hits the news because of the challenges here. I write about that a lot and, in that sense, I’m also involved in local committees, trying to do my bit to help make the neighbourhood more liveable.
“Sometimes it’s actually nice to be in a place that challenges you”
If you look at the challenges of life in a metropolis, Kuregem is where almost everything comes together. That’s partly because the neighbourhood sits at the crossroads of several municipalities, wedged between a motorway, a canal and the small ring road. It’s an interesting place to live. Here, you immediately feel when something shifts politically, or when there’s a crisis. Everything comes straight to the surface. For peace of mind, it might be more pleasant to live in a tidy little street in Ixelles. At a certain point, housing here was much cheaper, which attracted a fun and diverse group of people, with many nationalities and artists. And sometimes it’s just good to be somewhere that keeps you on your toes. There are days when I wonder what I’m doing here. But it is home. I’ve lived here for 15 years now, and you get attached.
During that time, I’ve seen Brussels change enormously. The differences between richer and poorer municipalities have grown. Poverty has become more visible and the chaos has increased too: people have become more individualistic, and you see that reflected in the streets. Things feel a bit hardened. What makes Brussels unique is that it’s a rather difficult city to govern, with many layers of administration and a language divide. When I’m in Amsterdam or Antwerp, I see cities that seem to have everything sorted. I can best compare Brussels to Rotterdam 15 years ago: very multicultural, with no single group in the majority.
Every morning, the well-known flea market takes place on the Vossenplein in the Marolles
To help visitors fall in love with Brussels, I often take them to the Marolles, with the Vossenplein and its side streets. Or to the Palace of Justice, with its sweeping view over the city. I also love the Flageyplein and the surrounding neighbourhood, with the parks and beautiful houses—there I let my imagination wander about the lives of the people who live in them. I’m also fond of the area around the Rue Royale, as well as the Sonian Forest. I love taking the tram from Montgomery out to the woods, riding through the trees, stepping off among the tall trunks and being able to start walking straight away.
