Brussels Region and Sibelga sign agreement to beautifully light up Brussels

“Many people carefully light up their living room with various light sources to achieve a cosy feeling. We should create this same feeling in the city, both day and night, because the city is the everyone’s living room. Brussels has plenty of beautiful buildings and squares and we are now literally going to illuminate them. Not only to show their beauty, but also to give people the same safe and cosy feeling of being at home. Together with Sibelga we keep working on a pleasant city for all Brusselers,” says Pascal Smet, State Secretary for Urbanism and Heritage.

“Our Brussels heritage can only exist if people admire it. So I am delighted with this cooperation agreement between the Region and Sibelga, which has been in charge of public lighting for many years. As a result of this agreement, some of our heritage buildings will be highlighted again thanks to a brand new lighting scenario,” says Rudi Vervoort, Brussels region Prime Minister.

“The Sibelga teams are proud to highlight the Brussels heritage, both at night and during the day. They do so in close collaboration with urban.brussels. To achieve this, they have to adapt to the specific characteristics of each building and support its structure. We have built up this expertise over many years of lighting projects for municipal buildings. In the end, we want to offer all citizens the possibility to rediscover the gems of the Brussels-Capital Region by putting them in a “new light” as soon as night falls,” says CEO of Sibelga Raphaël Lefere.

Several buildings and squares, such as the Grand Place, Mont des Arts and the VRT transmission tower, are already illuminated in the evening.  The aim of this agreement is to efficiently and beautifully light up many more buildings and squares in the short term, with special attention to their heritage value.

Together with Sibelga and the Office of State Secretary Pascal Smet, urban.brussels, the Brussels public service for urbanism and heritage, will soon decide which Brussels buildings will be atmospherically illuminated during this first stage. Afterwards, the research office and the contractor, already appointed by Sibelga, will concretely prepare and carry out the interventions.
The Brussels-Capital Region is making 1.5 million euros available for the implementation of the programme, which will run for three years.