What defines a city as a “modern capital”? Dynamism and efficiency. What do these factors need to be successful? Good policies and far-sighted visions. What resort to give them a shape? Architecture. In Brussels, after the war, cinema, bowling, art galleries, tennis clubs and swimming pools were built. A new city’s viability begins to take shape. Architects experiment the principles of modernism in designing large-scale residential developments and new neighborhoods. The 50’s and the 60’s represent a moment of extraordinary growth, a path to understand the value of architecture not as an imposition, but as a proposal for society.

(Text and map: Rossella Locatelli and Sedaile Mejias / photos: Diego Luna Quintanilla // cover: Viaduc Ferroviaire du Midi )

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