The Atomium, Brussels

A cell of an iron crystal, 165 billion times larger than the real thing!

Probably the best-known example of a “temporary” structure that has achieved permanence is the Eiffel Tower in Paris, built for the 1889 Exposition Universelle. However, the same is also true of one of Belgium’s renowned landmarks, the Atomium in Heysel Park, Brussels.

The Atomium was built for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair, otherwise known as Expo 58. This was the first such event to be held after the Second World War and it took place at a time of both hope and tension, given that major scientific advances were being made at the same time that the world’s major powers were eyeing each other with suspicion during the Cold War.

1958 was the year that saw the birth of NASA and the launch of the integrated circuit. The Soviet Union had, the year before, sent the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into orbit. At Expo 58 the United States and the Soviet Union were next-door neighbours in their pavilions, and they took every opportunity to score points off each other. The motto of the Fair: “A World View — A New Humanism”, seemed to be wildly optimistic.

Belgium, a small European nation that had suffered invasion and devastation in both of the century’s world wars, could not compete in terms of scientific or…