ABSTRACT
When presenting the foreign pavilion projects at Expo 58 to the international press, Marcel Van Goethem, architect-in-chief of this rst post-war world’s fair, amplied the doubts of the organizers: ‘We were afraid that, in this era, the internationalization of the means of construction would lead to an internationalization of architecture.’1 A variegated architectural panorama was deemed necessary for a fair of this size – 200 hectares large, with 127 pavilions. Yet because of the diplomatic context of this BIE-recognized event,2 organizers had only limited control over the designs commissioned by the participants. It was the organizers’ wish that this new, unied, peaceful post-war world on show should not be considered monotonous, that cultural dierences should be expressed in their architectural consequences. At the presentation of foreign projects, the organizers considered their wish fullled – much to their surprise, as Van Goethem announced:
In discussions concerning the expression of national character, or even nationalism, through architecture and design at Expo 58, two dierent kinds of commissioners should be taken into account: the organizers of the fair, and individual, especially foreign participants. Both are commissioners of architecture and operate in a double context: they are part of the international panorama of the fair in which diversication and recognisability are desirable. However they are also part of a national production with its own history, habits and discussions, and aimed at positive national identication. Quick observation of the national pavilions at Expo 58 shows that several were interchangeable, at least visually. Only few pavilions realized by architects referring to regional features revealed the commissioner’s nationality directly, like, to name the most notorious, the Japanese
pavilion by Kunio Maekawa or the Italian pavilion by Ernesto N. Rogers and his colleagues.4 In guides and leaets most pavilions forwarded a narrative linking modern architectural features to post-war, national identity.
