The Atomium, Brussels: Belgium’s Extraordinary Vision of the Future

There are some buildings and monuments that you recognise immediately, even if you have never actually stood in front of them. The Atomium in Brussels is certainly one of them.

I had seen photographs of it many times over the years, but seeing it properly is something quite different. It is strange, enormous and wonderfully futuristic, yet at the same time it has become an important piece of Belgian history.

Standing beneath it and looking upwards, it is difficult not to be impressed.

A Remarkable Survivor from Expo 58

The Atomium was built for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair, Expo 58, an event that represented optimism, scientific progress and a belief that technology could create a better future.

It was designed by Belgian engineer André Waterkeyn, with architects André and Jean Polak, and was never really intended to become a permanent Brussels landmark.

Yet more than sixty years later, it is difficult to imagine the city without it.

The structure represents a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. Nine enormous spheres are connected by tubes, creating something that seems to belong equally to the worlds of architecture, engineering and science fiction.

At approximately 102 metres high, its scale only really becomes apparent when you are standing beside it.

From a distance the spheres can almost appear quite delicate. Up close, they are anything but.

Stepping Inside the Atomium

What makes the Atomium particularly interesting is that it isn't simply something to photograph from outside.

You can actually go inside it.

The connecting tubes contain stairs, escalators and a lift, allowing visitors to move between the accessible spheres. Walking through them is quite an unusual experience because you become aware that you are travelling through the structure that you were looking at only a few minutes earlier.

Some areas contain exhibitions exploring the history of the Atomium and Expo 58, while others are used for temporary displays.

There is still a distinctly retro-futuristic atmosphere about the place.

It is a vision of the future imagined during the 1950s, and that is part of what makes it so fascinating today.

The View Across Brussels

One of the highlights for me was reaching the upper sphere.

From here there are panoramic views across Brussels, and on a clear day you can see for miles.

Looking down also gives you an entirely different appreciation of the Atomium itself. The enormous tubes and spheres suddenly become part of the landscape below, while the city stretches away into the distance.

Nearby is Mini-Europe, and the surrounding Heysel area can also be seen particularly well from above.

It is one of those places where I found myself spending longer looking out of the windows than I originally expected.

A Symbol of Post-War Optimism

The more I explored the Atomium, the more interesting its history became.

Expo 58 was the first major World's Fair held after the Second World War. Europe was changing rapidly, and developments in nuclear science, aviation, electronics and space exploration were transforming people's ideas about what the future might look like.

The Atomium captured that optimism perfectly.

Its enlarged iron crystal was intended to celebrate science and technological progress. Today, however, it also serves as a remarkable snapshot of how people in the late 1950s imagined the world ahead of them.

There is something rather appealing about that.

Many buildings from international exhibitions disappear shortly afterwards. The Atomium survived and gradually became something far more important than its original temporary purpose.

Restoring an Icon

By the end of the twentieth century, decades of exposure to the Belgian weather had taken their toll.

A major renovation began in 2004, and the Atomium reopened in 2006. Its original aluminium exterior was replaced with stainless steel, restoring the brilliant reflective appearance that makes the structure so striking today.

When sunlight catches the spheres, the effect is spectacular.

Clouds, buildings and the surrounding landscape appear distorted across their curved surfaces, meaning the appearance of the Atomium seems to change constantly depending on the weather and the light.

For photography, it is an extraordinary subject.

My Visit

For me, visiting the Atomium was about much more than simply seeing another famous European landmark.

I enjoy places with a story behind them, particularly buildings and structures that represent a particular moment in history, and the Atomium certainly does that.

There is also something slightly surreal about standing beneath it.

You know perfectly well that it was built in the 1950s, yet it still manages to look futuristic. In some ways it looks more like something imagined for a science-fiction film than a structure that has been standing in Brussels since 1958.

That contrast between past and future is probably what I enjoyed most.

It is historic without looking historic.

More Than a Brussels Landmark

The Atomium has become one of the defining images of Belgium, but I think it deserves to be appreciated as more than simply a tourist attraction.

It represents an extraordinary period of confidence and imagination.

It was built at a time when people were looking towards a future of scientific discovery and technological advancement, and although the world that followed was perhaps rather different from the one imagined at Expo 58, the Atomium remains.

For anyone visiting Brussels, I would certainly recommend making the journey out to see it.

Photographs give you an idea of what it looks like, but they don't really convey its scale.

Standing underneath those enormous silver spheres, looking upwards at one of Europe's most unusual structures, is something quite different.

The Atomium is strange, ambitious, unmistakably Belgian and completely unforgettable — and I am very pleased that something originally intended to be temporary survived to become one of Europe's great modern landmarks.

By Daren Frankish