SHOULD I ADMIRE OR DERIDE THE ATOMIUM? Both Kitsch is not necessarily bad. An object can satisfy the dictionary definition - "worthless pretentiousness in art" - but at the same time can be daring, inspiring and popular; and the Brussels Atomium is all of those things. The nine spheres represent a molecule of iron magnified 165 billion times. Built for Expo '58 on the high ground of the Heysel Plateau, it was instantly acclaimed as a symbol of modernity that captured the optimism of the age. War memories were receding, Sputnik had bleeped into space, and 40 million people visited the attraction in its first year. The plan to dismantle it when Expo 58 closed was hastily abandoned, and Brussels found itself with a piece of atomic kitsch as a permanent landmark.

As the years passed, the steel and aluminium-clad construction began to rust and creak, and a facelift was urgently needed when it closed in October 2004. A new lease of life for the Atomium (00 322 475 47 78; www.atomium.be) starts today, with additions comprising a restaurant at the highest point of the top sphere; another sphere containing a permanent exhibition celebrating the 1950s; and a third, opening in the autumn, specially for children, who get in free. Admission for over-12s is €7 (£5), rising to €9 (£6.30) on 1 May.WHAT ELSE SURVIVES FROM THAT ERA?Another 1958 arrival was Japan's attempt to eclipse the Eiffel Tower in the form of the Tokyo Tower - at 333m, 13m taller than the French original. At birth, it was the most recognisable landmark in the Japanese capital, but over the years other buildings have grown up around it, reducing the startling impact of its illuminated white and orange girders. The preponderance of Japanese kitsch at street level also diverts the eye. In a city where love hotels are decked out as wedding cakes or ocean liners, a copy of a 19th-century European tower becomes less of an eyesore than it would have been in, say, Rome or Athens.

Today, the Tokyo Tower is a broadcasting relay station and entertainments centre, with an aquarium, wax museum, "holographic mystery zone" and mountainous displays of souvenir tat. Its redeeming feature is the wonderful views, from its two observation platforms, of Mount Fuji and Tokyo Bay. The higher you go, the more you pay: admission to the Grand Platform (150m) is 820Yen (£3.90); the Special Platform, at an altitude of 250m, requires an extra 600Yen (£2.80).Three years older than the Atomium and Tokyo Tower, the Palace of Science and Culture transformed the 1955 skyline of Warsaw - and instantly became a laughing stock. Conceived by Stalin as a gift to the people of Poland - who never asked for it - this dismal skyscraper, 231m high, was grotesquely out of place in what was then a low-rise city. Half a century later it is still the tallest building in Poland.