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| 17.01.2008 | ||
In 2008 a special monument celebrates its 50th anniversary. The monument we are talking about is the Atomium in
Even though the Atomium was not intended to survive the Exhibition of 1958 and was originally planned to remain standing only six months, the monument has been an impressive and amazing sight of
Designed by the Belgian engineer André Waterkeyn for the International Exhibition of Brussels in 1958 the Atomium is a structure that is half way between sculpture and architecture, symbolising with the help of nine atoms a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times.
In March 2004 the renovation on the Atomium began. The monument was closed to the public and reopened in 2006. The renovations included replacing the faded aluminium sheets on the spheres with stainless steel. To help pay for renovations, the old aluminium has been sold to the public as souvenirs. A triangular piece about 2 m long sold for €1,000.
After the renovation you can find several improvements including revamped exhibition spaces, a restaurant, and a dormitory for visiting schoolchildren.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Atomium from April until October plenty of events will take place including an exhibition „Expo 58, Contemporary Art of the World’s Fair”.
You can find further information and pictures on ourbania.com.
Picture of the Atomium © Mishkabear
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I’ve been to Brussels and I can tell you it’s quite a sight. Somehow I wonder if things like the Atomium would be possible to build nowadays as today everything is about financing and efficiency. Cultural worth and gain are not taken into account usually when planning and financing a building in my experience. Maybe Eurohypo can comment on that as well as they are part of the network that is heading towards the age of “efficiency above everything”.
Imagine Europe without the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the opera in Dresden, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the famous tower in Pisa and yes, the Atomium in Brussels - all great buildings back then and now. How many of those would be missing today if the accountants would have had their word back then? What a cultural loss that would have been.
Thank you for your mentioning of one of those more modern cultural heritages.
Martin Heise
Dear Martin,
You are absolutely right, that the world would be poorer without the buildings you have mentioned above. You could easily add the Pyramids, Coliseum etc. What do all these buildings have in common? They have been financed by the respective government either through credit or through exploiting people. As you can see, there has always been a division of labour in financing buildings. For private financiers today efficiency is a must. But also modern architecture has the potential to become a landmark of a city. For example, the Allianz-Arena in Munich or Citylife in Milan seem to be accepted symbols, famous in the whole world, and by the way, also financed by Eurohypo.
Siegfried Guterman
You are absolutely right in saying that all those great “old” buildings did cost their share. I did not want to imply otherwise. What I was saying is that I sometimes regret that todays buildings are all about efficiency (which is important) and sometimes lack those little things like stucco on the cladding of a building. You don’t see those details any more on modern buildings. For the biggest part because its not part of modern architecture anymore but I am sure it would be too expensive also.
I see your reasoning and follow it. But I’m still sure that if all those buildings you and I have mentioned would be planned today almost none of them could be build because of financing issues. The reason why those issues weren’t discussed in the past (slavery, monarchy etc.) may be horrible - but its sad to see that sometimes greatness in building is only possible with neglect humanity.
Martin Heise