The pavilion of happiness

Construction of a temporary pavilion, in the spirit of 1958 but with 2008 materials and to meet 2008 expectations. The architectural brief for the V+ studio (“For More Wellbeing”) was to build a temporary pavilion to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Brussels Universal Exhibition. This would house film shows and exhibitions open to the general public and telling the story of earlier universal expos. While the contents of the pavilion are intended to provoke questions, 50 years on, about the concepts of progress, universalism and happiness which were the flagship themes of international exhibitions in those days, the container needs to take its place in the lineage of buildings whose architecture successfully conveyed the questions asked in their day.