Power, control and national representation: modern architecture and exhibition design at Expo 58

At Expo 58, the first post-war world’s fair, discussions on national representation were central in the production of architecture and exhibition design. These discussions involve several parties: the organizers of the event, the commissioners of pavilions, architects, engineers, interior decorators, artists, script writers, etcetera. “The pavilion” is composed of the edifice, its exhibition and exhibits and the texts and images used to explain the representation. With this pavilion, or the entire fair in the case of the organizers, commissioners aim at the public at large: fairgoers, but also the public in the homeland. This text explores the functioning of power and control in the explicit representation of the nation in several projects at Expo 58 and discusses the nature of these representations, the processes of design and promotion, the authors involved and the issues at stake. To acquire insight in the discussions, this text claims, it is necessary to confront the diverging viewpoints of the authors and to include the reactions of the public and the press. In this post-war fair, most governments identified with modern architecture, but did feel the need to specify their nationality through architecture and exhibition design. At Expo 58, the various attempts placed national representation in modern architecture on the agenda of the public at large and the architectural discipline, evoking strong discussions. National representation in architecture and design became a collaborative creation of which the results were continuously discussed as outcomes of a “democratic” process. Still under the strong control of governmental institutions, in several remarkable cases, these commissioners were ostentatiously permissive of critical stances, which, in a later stage, were included in the national images

Modern wood : De Coene at Expo 58

To the Belgian wood firm De Coene, the 1958 world’s fair (Brussels) or Expo 58 functioned as a multifaceted promotion of its renewed profile: a celebrated furniture producer in the interwar period, the company had reoriented its activities mainly towards the building industries. Especially its glued laminated timber (glulams) proved to be a challenging and competitive construction element. De Coene’s involvement with Expo 58 resulted in 23 daring and imaginative constructions, several of which were noticed in the national and international specialists’ press. This paper highlights the surprising dominance and architectonic innovations of De Coene at Expo 58 in the context of building in Belgium in the post-war years. By focusing on the impact of the local building industry, it adds a new approach to the architectural and construction history of world’s fairs

Stjepan Planić in Belgium

Prikaz izložbe: Stjepan Planić (1900-1980) - Kroatisch architect/Architecte Croate, Centrale Bibliotheek van de KULeuven, Leuven, Belgija, 10.11.2004.-15.1.2005.New exhibition: Stjepan Planić (1900-1980) - Kroatisch architect/Architecte Croate, Centrale Bibliotheek van de KULeuven, Leuven, Belgium, 10.11.2004.-15.1.2005

De bureaugebouwen. Les immeubles de bureaux.

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Een interieur van popcultuur als propaganda en kritiek: Bernard Rudofsky en het Amerikaanse paviljoen op Expo 58

Bernard Rudofsky was een van de tentoonstellingsarchitecten in het Amerikaanse paviljoen op Expo 58. Dit artikel onderzoekt hoe zijn werk in dit paviljoen (Islands of Living, The Face of America, Streetscape en Cityscape) zich verhoudt tot zijn andere werk en tot de algemene concepten van het paviljoen. De tekst toont hoe Rudofsky's installaties tegelijk als propaganda én als kritiek fungeerden op de tentoongestelde Amerikaanse populaire cultuur

Pavillon de Brouckère

Technische fiche, met korte analyse van de structuur, voor het de Brouckère paviljoe

Het archieffonds Blaton. Le fonds d'archives Blaton

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