Expo '58

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Expo 58, also known as the Brussels World’s Fair, Brusselse Wereldtentoonstelling or Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Bruxelles, was held from April 17 to October 19, 1958. It was the first major World's Fair after World War II. It displayed a "Congolese village", in the continuation of earlier "human zoos". ^[1]

Nearly 15,000 workers spent three years building the 2 km² site, found on the Heysel plateau, seven kilometres northwest of Brussels, Belgium. The site is best known for a giant model of a unit cell of an iron crystal (each sphere representing an atom), called the Atomium, which decades later remains one of the best known landmarks of Brussels.

More than 42 million visitors visited the site, which was opened with a call for world peace and social and economic progress, issued by King Baudouin I.

The fair is also known for a musical milestone, a melding of musical composition and architecture. Edgard Varèse composed "Poème électronique," which was recorded to be played back from 425 loudspeakers, placed at specific points in the Philips Pavilion, designed by Iannis Xenakis while under the employ of Le Corbusier.