World Exhibition of Brussels 1958
''Among many themas, this Exhibition appears like a window opened on the "Golden Sixties" and introduces the urban development that express - and models - the new way of life of the post-war society in Belgium.''
''We may discover, inside and outside the Exhibition, many kinds of various illustrations of the upcoming "modern" or "international" city built, among other references, on the C.I.A.M.'s ideas, the "american temptation" and some scandinavian experiences.''
''1958 is a real turning point in the concrete development of the city of Brussels. Through the Exhibition and the modern "face lift" of the capital that goes with it, the belgian government follows its project to give a new international vocation to the city. In this way, the Exhibition may be considered like a "Cheval de Troie" (P. Philippot, revue Aplus nĄ82, p.10) of a radical transformation of the town. Behind the humanist and peaceful slogans of the exhibition, and under the cultural verneer of the modernity, new architectural and urban practices exploded, mostly guided by political and economical priorities. Rare are those architects who will keep the social aim and the critical spirit of the modernist pattern.''
''In the same time, the Exhibition shows us also the first reactions against those new directions , like in the Philips Pavilion or, more decisive, in the Italian Pavilion. Also in the architectural press, a lot of positions emerge offering an architectural and urban critical dimension at this Exhibition. Just between the big manifestation of Interbau in Berlin (1957) - the triumphal outcome of the "modern" urbanism - and the first critics against the CIAM during the last meeting in Otterloo (1959), the 1958's Exhibition seems, in this way, to be also an important starting point in the general debate about the city.''
''In this perspective, we would like to conceive this web site like an open and continuous frame of researchs. Some are under construction by ourself our by students of the ISACF-La Cambre (Brussels) and, may be, by other searchers from other institutions.''