The hanging roofs of Expo 58: knowledge, prestige and ideals Available to Purchase

No other exhibition has more references in the history of engineering than Expo 58, the first post-war world fair (Brussels). The contemporary specialist press labelled the exhibition a ‘festival of structures’ and focused on its widespread application of hanging roofs. This paper engages in complex analyses of three hanging roofs at Expo 58: the Marie Thumas pavilion, the pavilion of France and the US pavilion. Three fields of influence added to the enthusiasm for hanging roofs: the context of the fair, the post-war developments in engineering and the contemporary unease with functionalism among architects. In all three fields, hanging roofs were considered promissory of future developments: light and efficient in material use, of a radical new shape and illustrative of the benefits of a closer collaboration between architects and engineers. Nevertheless, the analyses also demonstrate the tensions between the preconditions of the contexts and their rhetoric on innovation and experiment. The research presented stems from an interdisciplinary approach and is based mainly on archival material and contemporary sources.