0:08
<I> (narrator) Regarding the context of the Expo 58, it must be remembered </ i>
<I> that it is the first World Expo after the war </ i>
<I> in a context of development, as we are in the beginning The Glorious Thirty, </ i>
<I> and of a will to pacify the world so peaceful relations </ i>
<I> are at the heart of the theme of the expo. </ I> And so we contemplate, thanks to the means
of technology that are available, interplanetary travels, with Sputnik
the highlight of the Russian pavilion, but also planetary travels.
Trips become handy, thanks to the car.
The French pavilion exhibits in its center the DS 19, the name is, of course,
iconic and it is the dream for this post-war generation
to think that the borders will open and that we will be able to travel as we please.
1:18
Expo 58 will be an opportunity for profound transformations for Brussels
to fit it to the car but these transformations will enroll
in some continuity, historian Christophe Loir has
shown that the modal segregation processes of public space
was at work since the early nineteenth century with, first,
the establishment and development of a promenade for pedestrians,
1:48
the creation of sidewalks and then, progressively, with the arrival of mechanical
modes of travel in the city, the confrontation, the competition
between the different modes in the public space. And even before the war,
we complained about the increased traffic and the problems
related to this traffic. And so in 1936,
two pieces of legislation will be adopted in Belgium.
2:16
First, the obligation for pedestrians to circulate exclusively on the sidewalk,
and secondly, the authorization for vehicle owners
to leave them parked without a driver on public roads.
And so these two decisions, prepared what was to come later,
that is to say the opening of the public space to flow, rapid flow,
automotive flow, both the circulation flow and also the parking
and the hold of the automobile on the public space.
2:56
<I> (narrator) A second important item </ i>
<I> it is the development of a new science, the science of traffic </ i>
<I> the "traffic engineering" that had developed </ i>
<I> in the interwar period in the United States, and that a senior Belgian official, </ i>
<I> the general director of Department of Public Works, </ i>
<I> Henry Hündermarcq, went to learn in the United States and import in Europe. </ I>
<I> So this official was the spearhead of these urban </ i>
<I> transformations experienced in Brussels but beyond that, he also has been </ i>
<I> one of the pioneer and thinker of the European motorway network. </ I>
3:39
<I> (narrator) Brussels, site in the center of the capital </ i>
<I> M Vanaudenhove, very paternal, </ i>
<I> embraces the girl who presents to him the scissors of circumstances </ i>
<I> and this is how the Minister inaugurated the first tunnel of the small ring. </ I>
<I> This gesture accomplished, the personalities in procession pass under the street of the Act (Rue de la Loi). </ I>
4:25
What characterizes the works that transformed Brussels
for Expo 58, is their speed
unlike any other major projects that Brussels and Belgium have known.
In 3 years, from 1955 to 1958, nearly 130 km of roads were created
or renovated, it's a countless number of intersections that have been built,
about thirty bridges were built, six tunnels and a viaduct
in the city, a big six-storey parking, well-named parking 58,
in the heart of Brussels and close to 35,000 parking space
on the Expo site.And so the 1958 due date served
as very strong pulse to initiate a plan that would continue
later because it was only a part of the most urgent work
that had been made at this time. <I> Then, a second interesting item </ i>
<I> is that Expo 58 also was an opportunity, perhaps paradoxically, </ i>
<I> to renovate the public transport network and the tram network in Brussels </ i>
<I> particularly because the organizers of the exhibition and the authorities of the time </ i>
<I> were well aware that not all the visitors were going to come </ i>
<I> by car. The automobile coverage of households still being </ i>
<I> very low at the time. And so, this is an element which explains why </ i>
<I> Brussels did not cast aside its tram network at the time, </ i>
<I> unlike many other cities in Europe. And continued to perceive </ i>
<I> the tram, the surface public transportation as both a necessity, </ i>
<I> and a disability, regarding the flow, </ i>
<I> the fluidity of the automotive traffic. </ I>
<I> And nothing has been done for many years to enhance </ i>
<I> the speed of the surface transport </ i>
<I> by installing them, for example, in protected sites. </ I>
6:49
<I> of the Athens Charter, with the separation of functions </ i>
<I> in the city and the development of the tertiary function, </ i>
<I> of the tertiary employment with the prospect of making Brussels </ i>
<I> a great international capital. </ i>
<I> The authorities were preparing to defend the candidacy </ i>
<I> of Brussels as the headquarters of the main insititutions of the Union </ i>
<I> and later the NATO and other institutions as well. </ I>
<I> So many great works of the time have targeted the transformation of the city </ i>
<I> and of the heart of the city as a work area, an office space, </ i>
<I> a great project that emerged at roughly the same time, </ i>
<I> a little bit after the Expo 58 is the transformation of the northern district, </ i>
<I> the Manhattan plan, a symptomatic name. Speed projects, of high-speed, </ i>
<I> highway projects were concretely embodied in these large urban projects </ i>
<I> since in this northern district were to cross highways </ i>
<I> from the north of Europe and were expected to join ... to connect the south, </ i>
<I> along the East/West highway coming from Ostend to Germany. </ I>
8:13
So these changes led to the development,
as in many cities at the time, of peri-urbanization
since the center was devalued, or at least devalued
regarding the housing, it was just supposed to be a place of business
and a place of commerce. And the peri-urbanization,
which had already begun in the 19th century in Brussels for the categories of the
middle and upper classes, was amplified from that time.
8:54
<I> One of the great achievement of the Expo 58 was the construction of the viaduct </ i>
<I> on the Boulevard Leopold 2 that leads to the Basilica of Koekelberg and beyond </ i>
<I> to the North Sea. It's called the Sea Viaduct precisely </ i>
<I> and allowed drivers to spend a day at the beach. </ I>
<I> The viaduct was fairly quickly decried as it faced the bedrooms </ i>
<I> of local residents that lined up this work of art. </ i>
<I> So, in the 80s, it was decided to demolish it </ i>
<I> and to build in its place a tunnel. Brussels and Belgium, </ i>
<I> has a long tradition of underground so it was an opportunity to build </ i>
<I> the longest road tunnel in Belgium. And, in reality, also to increase </ i>
<I> the road ability of this artery, since instead of the viaduct </ i>
<I> which had 3 lanes, which was fueled regarding the importance </ i>
<I>of traffic with two bands in one way and in the other, a tunnel was created </ i>
<I> with twice two bands while readjusting the area </ i>
<I> to the benefit of traffic. </ I> So this is a first evolution
but which does not really manifest a paradigm shift.
The recent destruction of Reyers Viaduct is probably more part
of a change in design of the development of the urban space
and of the urban public space insofar
this destruction was not accompanied by the decision,
or on the contrary, led to the decision to give up
digging a new tunnel. So the road capacity will be reduced
there and the area will be developed into an urban boulevard, according to this logic
however, of modal segregation, where there will be a space for pedestrians,
a space for cyclists, a space for cars.
Vincent KaufmannProfesseur
Aniss M. MezouedDocteur
Bernard DeclèveProfesseur
