In Focus

Rika Devos
Associated Professor in Architecture and Construction History, ULB, Belgium

‘After the Expo, everything was modern,’ still is a lasting catchphrase in the popular history of Expo 1958 Brussels in Belgium. Architecture, however, had already turned modern long before 1958. It might sound odd today, but the organisers of the World Expo had announced the Expo’s architecture as ‘not so much modern, but twenty years ahead of its time.’ Moreover, while progressivist architecture journals, both Belgian and foreign, expressed their general appreciation for the overall rapprochement they observed between modern architecture and the public, they also did not hide their disappointment on the average state of architecture at the Expo. The Belgian CIAM delegation even declared that the architecture of Expo 1958 was “a great fiasco.” How can this Expo then be considered a laboratory for architectural and engineering experiment?

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The concept of the ephemeral has been changing throughout history. It is associated with the brief, the fleeting, the passing or the momentary. The opposite of permanent. But, is it really so? ...
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World Expo 1970, hosted by the city of Suita, Osaka, in Japan and organised around the theme of the “Progress and Harmony for Mankind,” was the first World Expo held in an Asian country, and ...
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Architecture since the Industrial Revolution has been dependent on pioneering building techniques and technological innovations. Their development requires experimentation, usually too risky and ...
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Le 11 juillet 1938, le jour où Howard Hughes (1905-1976) bat le record de traversée de l’Atlantique, Jean Zay (1904-1944) préside la cérémonie de réouverture du Palais de la découverte. ...
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With the theme “Green Desert, Better Environment”, Horticultural Expo 2023 Doha, Qatar will gather countries from around the world around the collective aim of building greener and more ...
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Expo 2020 Dubai, which received over 24 million visits between 1 October 2021 and 31 March 2022, was defined by the breathtaking architecture of its pavilions. As the legacy district - Expo City ...
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With less than 1,000 days until the opening of Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai, themed “Designing Future Society for Our Lives”, this second part of the Vision for a Future Society series looks at the ...
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On 18 July, Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai marks the 1,000-day countdown to the opening of the next World Expo. As part of the development of its theme “Designing Future Society for Our Lives”, ...
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Opening its doors on 15 July, the 23rd edition of the Triennale Milano International Exhibition tackles the question of the unknown through its theme “Unknown Unknowns. An Introduction to ...
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