#modernity2025
For its 2025 year theme, Urban invites you to explore a notion that is both omnipresent and constantly evolving: modernity.
Synonymous with progress for some, a concept to be deconstructed for others, it is now questioning our practices, our models of society and our urban environments.
A founding but changing concept
Acting in tune with the times: that is how modernity is often defined. Driven by values such as innovation, performance, comfort and rationality, it has had a profound impact on the history of Western societies.
In the field of architecture, this quest for modernity has been expressed through a succession of trends, each in its own way attempting to break with past traditions. Art Nouveau - or El Modernisme in Catalonia - was the first to claim this break with the past, by offering a radically new aesthetic, free of academicism. Modernism, the Modern Movement and Post-Modernism extended this dynamic, each seeking in turn to reinvent the city and its uses. In Brussels, Expo 58 (the 1958 Brussels World's Fair) remains an emblematic incarnation of this dream of modernity, combining technical progress and faith in the future.
A necessary reassessment
But what remains of this modern ideal today? The great narratives of progress collide with more complex realities. Massive industrialisation, unbridled consumption of resources, environmental imbalances and social tensions have highlighted the limits of a modernity conceived as a universal model.
In this context, new practices are emerging. More and more architectural agencies are favouring more frugal, local and participatory approaches. Reusing materials, preserving existing buildings, returning to traditional craftsmanship, vernacular techniques, etc. are all actions that reflect a paradigm shift.
Heritage, long seen as a counterweight to modernity, is now becoming a living resource.
Modernity to be reinvented
Are we at the dawn of a new modernity? Some predict a fourth industrial revolution, driven by artificial intelligence, nuclear fusion, intelligent and connected machines, smart cities and cyber-physical systems. These technologies promise major upheavals in the way we produce, live and interact with our environments.
Others are calling for a more profound transformation: rethinking how we live, produce and transmit. They ask for a more measured modernity, sensitive to context, to the living world and to the diversity of uses and cultures.
A common thread for the various actions in 2025
Throughout the year, Urban invites you to explore together what being modern means today, through a series of events that will question this notion.
Art Deco Brussels 2025
“Art Deco, resolutely modern?”
To mark the centenary of the “International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts”, Urban and visit.brussels invite you to discover the many facets of the Art Deco world, through a programme that explores its architectural, urbanistic, sociological and human dimensions.
Heritage Days 2025
“Art Deco, Roaring Twenties, Crash Years”
The 37th edition of this emblematic event will also revisit Art Deco, going beyond the purely aesthetic approach to reveal its urban, social and cultural issues.
3rd edition of the Brussels Architecture Prize
By means of this prize, Urban and its co-producer A+ Architecture in Belgium wish to open the debate on architectural and urban planning quality in the Brussels Capital Region. It highlights Brussels as both a metropolis in transformation and a laboratory for contemporary architecture, with a view to building innovative, sustainable and humane cities.
Check out the activities that are scheduled to take place during this 3rd edition.
“Bruxelles Patrimoines” no.38: Focus 1939-99
Discover the new issue of Urban’s “Bruxelles Patrimoines” magazine, dedicated to recent heritage.
This 38th volume aims to raise public awareness of the importance of our heritage built during the 1939-1999 period, and highlights the heritage policies and scientific research from which this “young” heritage has benefited in recent years.
→ Learn more
Modern Brussels Map
As part of its efforts to raise awareness of 20th century heritage, Urban also supports and initiates other projects aimed at highlighting recent heritage.
These projects include the “Modern Brussels” map, made by Jacinthe Gigou of the non-profit organisation Modernista, in collaboration with Urban. The map presents a varied itinerary, with a selection of 56 iconic addresses from Brussels’ modern heritage.
