National Pavilions for International Consumption: Japan as Case Study

The pavilion of the USSR was one of the architectural surprises of Expo 58, the world’s fair organized in Brussels, Belgium (1958). This talk revisits the pavilion of the USSR as a key moment in the development of the new architectural style that later would become known as Soviet Modernism. Indeed, modern architecture became the lingua franca for international participants at Expo 58. The Soviet Union represented itself with a monumental beam-shaped glass building consisting mainly of glass, steel and aluminium, resulting in nicknames like the 'Parthenon of Glass and Steel', 'The Refrigerator' or ‘The Greenhouse’. Interpretations and reviews from the perspective of the Cold War concluded at the time that the pavilion simply copied the principles of the International Style and was just a poor copy or pastiche of modern (Western) building principles. 

This talk revisits the design process of the Pavilion of the USSR within the changing architectural culture and legal framework at home: while Khrushchev announced an architectural revolution in the USSR, the architectural competition for the Pavilion at Expo 58 was launched. This presentation draws on archival research conducted in Belgian and Russian archives. Analysis of sketches, mock-ups, and multiple reworked versions, parallel to the unfolding developments at home, frame the pavilion not only as an exemplary project or even a manifest of the new Soviet Modernist Style but also as one attesting to the confusion reigning within the architectural scene.

Charlotte Rottiers is a Ph.D. researcher at the KU Leuven's Faculty of Architecture in Ghent, Belgium.