Photo: Lena Wurm
September, 2025- The Atomium, built in Brussels for the World’s Fair in 1958, represents an elementary iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. The engineer André Waterkeyn, who was then head of the economic department at Fabrimétal (a federation of metals manufacturers), was tasked with the signature World’s Fair symbol. Waterkeyn noted that, in nature, iron atoms are organized according to a cubic structure that could be scaled up and reproduced as a building. The iron crystal formed a cube on the tip of the Atomium, with one atom at each angle connected to each other with 20 tubes, the whole supported by three large bipod braces. The Atomium is a permanent fixture in its own plaza in Brussels.
