Visiting Ignace, our [rezidentz] member.

Ignace, 29, spent his entire life in Leuven before Brussels. He'd done an Erasmus year in Madrid, worked in various places, and then made the move to the capital. He's now an internal sales engineer and lives at Rezidentz Sainte Catherine — one of the first people to move into the building.

On what he values in an apartment

'Privacy, first of all,' he says. 'And the ability to make it mine.' At previous places — shared flats, rooms in houses — the common spaces always involved negotiation. Here, his kitchen is his kitchen. His recording corner is his recording corner. He's set up equipment to record his band's music.

The band is called Omicron, named after a galaxy. They play metal. The studio apartment on Sainte Catherine is where the compositions happen — headphones on, late evenings, music from a family that's been musical for generations.

On daily rituals

He cycles to work. He cooks seriously — Thai and Italian are his go-to cuisines, with salad variations built around mozzarella, nuts, and tomatoes. After work, he often walks to the neighbourhood restaurants on Sainte Catherine — Mapa Mundo is a regular.

On music and community

'A world without music would not be a world.' He says it simply, without irony. It's the kind of statement that makes sense coming from someone who plays in a metal band named after a galaxy and listens to melancholic compositions while commuting by bicycle across Brussels.