ATOMIUM-Guidebook-EN V130721
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CE GUIDE APPARTIENT À DEZE GIDS BEHOORT TOE AAN THIS GUIDEBOOK BELONGS TO J’ai VISITÉ L’ATOMIUM LE IK HEB HET ATOMIUM BEZOCHT OP I VISITED THE ATOMIUM ON EN COMPAGNIE DE IN HET GEZELSCHAP VAN AccOMPANIED BY VISITORS’ GUIDE THE TOUR VISIT PART 1 : THE PANORAMA PART 2 : EXHIBITIONS LEVELS 0 & 7 - VIA LIFT LEVELS 1-2-3-4-5-6 : STAIRS & ESCALATORS LEVEL 8 8 Toilets Restaurant 7 FOR HIRE 5 Waterkeyn Room 4 CHILDREN’S FOR HIRE 3 SPHERE Prigogine Room 6 Accessible only to primary schools (booking required or during scheduled activities) 2 1 TERRACE ENTRANCE 0 Sandwiches & drinks EXIT TICKET OFFICE Via the shop Audio-guides Toilets VISIT / PART 1: THE PANORAMA [LEVELS 0 & 7 - VIA LIFT] 0 MAIN HALL [LIFT / ESCALATORS / SHOP] VISIT / PART 2: EXHIBITIONS 1 PERMANENT EXHIBITION 5 TEMPORARY EXHIBITION [LEVELS 1 > 6: STAIRS] VISIT / PART 2: EXHIBITIONS 2 PERMANENT EXHIBITION 6 VIEWPOINT [LEVELS 1 > 6: ESCALATORS] OFF THE TOUR 3 TEMPORARY EXHIBITION 7 360° PANORAMA & TOILETS TICKETS / ENTRANCE / TEMPORARY EXHIBITION SHOP / TERRACE 4 8 RESTAURANT 59 VISITORS’ GUIDE 60 VISITORS’ GUIDE THE MAGIC OF ARCHITECTURE. THE JOY OF CULTURE. TICKET OFFICE Before starting your visit, make yourself familiar with the content and operation WELCOME TO THE ATOMIUM! of the audio-guides. For this, listen to Everyone in the Atomium team is delighted to welcome you to this building item 501 on your which is one of the most Belgian of all buildings and hopes that you will audio-guide. enjoy your time with us.This is the first edition of the visitors’ guide and is designed to enhance your visit and provide more information about the various subjects on display. To add to the information provided in this guide, in particular with contemporary interviews and sound clips, you can hire an audio-guide in your language from the ticket office. At the end of the guide, you will find space in which you can record your memories of the Atomium, your visit to Brussels or any other subject of importance to you. It has been designed as an object which travellers can keep, carry with them, cherish and scribble on. Make good use of it – it’s yours! The guide is our gift to you. The Atomium has been a symbol of progress The outstanding monument from the Uni- and modernity since 1958, being firmly de- versal Exhibition of 1958, the Atomium is voted to male-female equality in terms of its and remains open to the world, starting with a staffing and management (a female Chairperson, cosmopolitan staff which perfectly reflects the Did you know? you Did a male Director, a female Assistant Director and characteristic diversity and multi-culturalism of a male Assistant Director). the people of Brussels. 61 VISITORS’ GUIDE 7 10 9 1 2 3 8 4 5 15 6 A bright icon in the sky over Brussels: it’s not a Whatever we may think of it, the unique shape tower nor a pyramid, partly cubic, partly spherical, of the Atomium has always been striking and is half-way between sculpture and architecture, a well known throughout the world. Many inter- resolutely futuristic reminder of our past, a net sites list the Atomium as the leader among Did you know? you Did museum and a place of exhibitions, the Atomium buildings which defy classification, the most is at once and at the same time an object, a surprising, creative and astonishing building place, a utopia and an emblem unique in the in the world. world, resisting any form of classification. Here is a brief glimpse of what we mean. 62 VISITORS’ GUIDE 14 11 12 13 18 19 16 17 20 01. USAF Academy 06. Catedral Metropolitana 11. CRAZY HOUSE 16. Great Library of Alexandria Cadet Chapel Nossa Senhora Aparecida [Kryzwy Domek] Alexandria - EGYPT El Paso - USA Brasilia - BRAZIL Sopot - POLAND 17. Lotus Temple 02. Library 07. Hallgrímskirkja 12. Dancing House New Delhi - INDIA Kansas City - USA Reykjavik - ICELAND Prague - CZECH REPUBLIC 18. Tianzi Hotel 03. Longaberger 08. Casa Pedro 13. Universalmuseum Sanhe - CHINA Basket office Guimarães - PORTUGAL Joanneum 19. Piano House 21 Newark - USA 09. Cubic houses Graz - AUSTRIA Huainan - CHINA 04. Wonderworks Museum [Kubus Woningen] 14. House Sutyagin 20. Hang Nga Guesthouse Pigeon Forge - USA Rotterdam - NETHERLANDS Archangelsk - RUSSIA Da Lat - VIETNAM 05. Nautilus House 10. Hundertwasser House 15. Grand Mosque 21. Sydney Opera House Mexico City - MEXICO Darmstadt - GERMANY Djenné - MALI AUSTRALIA 63 VISITORS’ GUIDE FIGURES TO ASTONISH YOU THE BUILDING Did you know? you Did The Atomium represents an iron crystal, spheres (1 at each vertex plus 1 central sphere), magnified 165 billion times, in the form of connected together by 20 tubes (12 edges and a centred cube standing on one of its corners. 2 tubes for each of the 4 diagonals. The whole The complete Atomium is made up of 9 structure stands on 3 pillars, known as “bipods”). • Total height 102m • Diameter of spheres 18m • Diameter of tubes 3m30 • Surface area of spheres 108m2 / 240m2 • Length of tubes at edges 29m • Length of tubes on diagonals 23m • Diameter of pavilion at base 26m • Total weight in 1958 [ON CONSTRUCTION] 2.400 tonnes • Total weight in 2006 [AFTER RENOVATION] 2.500 tonnes INTERNET • 873.000 references on the Internet • 12.000 sites with direct links to the Atomium site • 45.000 shared photographs on Flickr • 60.000 shared photographs on Picasa • more than 13.000 fans on Facebook • 4.000 check-ins with Foursquare • 2.300 individual visitors every day to the Atomium site EVERY DAY STATISTICS • 600.000 visitors per year • Record number of visitors in one day: 4,700 on 17.08.2008 • One of 5 European institutions providing visitors with audio-guides in 28 languages • 100 private events per year, with 11,000 participants • Approximately 10 visits by Heads of State each year, both private and official • The Atomium is also used in dozens of photoshoots for fashion, design and architecture magazines • A number of national and international radio and TV broadcasts are recorded each year, either at the foot of the Atomium or inside 64 VISITORS’ GUIDE BE PART OF THE LEGEND Before entering the lift which takes you to the panoramic sphere [level 7], don’t miss the opportunity of taking a photograph by the panel located in the queuing area: send it to us at [email protected]. The best pictures will be published on our Facebook page (facebook.com/missyatomium) WHILE YOU ARE waiting FOR THE LIFT, listen to items 100 and 101 on your audio-guide for an introduction to the history of the Atomium from 1958 to the present day. The Atomium’s Facebook profile now has 13,000 fans and makes the building You’re fantastic! You’re one of the most popular in the country. Thank you all! Carry on posting your photos and comments.generated at BeQRious.com 65 VISITORS’ GUIDE THE FASTEST LIFT IN EUROPE DIRECT TRANSFER FROM LEVEL 0 > LEVEL 7 In addition to its unique architectural qualities, the Atomium already boasted the fastest lift in Europe in 1958, with a speed of 5 metres per second (18 kph). This record has obviously been ex- ceeded since and is now held by Taipei 101 (Taiwan) with a speed of 16.8 metres per second (60 kph), more than 3 times as fast. This record will soon be broken again with the construction of a building in Shanghai (People’s Republic of China), which will have a lift speed of 18 metres per second (65 kph). The Atomium lift, which was originally intended to operate for the duration of Expo 58, meets today’s standards and receives a full overhaul at the be- ginning of every year. The only structural modification is the installation of a window in the ceiling, which allows the visitor to see the entrails of the central tube and better appreciate the impression of speed. DID YOU FEEL IT? While walking around inside the Atomium, would be rigid, it would simply break. Remember you may have felt movement, as in a boat, or the proverb: bamboo bends but does not break. seen light fittings moving slightly. This is due This principle is applied to the architecture of Did you know? you Did to flexibility in the structure, which is essential the Atomium. So no worries! to allow it to withstand winds. If the Atomium 66 VISITORS’ GUIDE OFTEN COPIED BUT NEVER AN EXACT MATCH As far as we know, there are currently 5 miniature replicas of the Atomium, all located in Europe. Are you aware of any others? If so, send us an e-mail to [email protected] Did you know? you Did • OZD (Hungary) • SEVILLA (Spain) This small, discrete sculpture, perched on This 1:50 replica (about 2 metres high) top of a pedestal, can be found in Stadium was a gift from the City of Brussels to the Park and is believed to date from the Urban Community of Seville on the oc- 1960’s. This is the oldest replica that we casion of the Universal Exhibition which know about. It is thought to have been was held in the Andalusian city in 1992. made by a group of engineers and workers The monument was not removed after the from the city’s metallurgical factory and event and still adorns the bus station on may have originally been mobile. Plaza de Armas. • MINIMUNDUS • PARQUE EUROPA (Klagenfurt / Austria) (Torrejon de Ardoz - Madrid / Spain) This replica, at a scale of 1:25 (i.e. approxi- This most recent of the replicas is also at a mately 4 metres in height), is on display scale of 1:25 and is located in a miniatur- in the Minimundus collection of miniature ised collection of European buildings.