The city of Brasilia

is located in Brazil

on the South American continent. Built as a Planned City

to become the nation’s capital, the entire city was

constructed for a projected population of 500,000 over a

four year period between 1957 and 1960 to an

urban planning scheme developed by Lucio Costa as a part

of an overall competition. Costa’s scheme for the new city

was not the most detailed or comprehensive submission,

indeed it was rather sketchy and brief. Nevertheless, his

scheme was deemed to contain within it’s cross pattern

layout the essence of the commissioning Government’s

desire for a monumental symbol for the capital,

which would be further enhanced by Oscar Niemeyer’s

distinctively Brazilian architecture.

This motivation for the monumental achieved

through economic and architectural means at the

expense of social and cultural concerns lays at the

heart of many of the problems that subsequently developed

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as Brasilia emerged. From its beginnings the new capital

has struggled to keep in balance the social utopian ideals

which had generated the architecture and planning of its

spaces, with the realities of Brazil’s poor economic

condition and dramatic social stratification. Brazil is

plagued by a history of the ‘public works

complex’(Epstein, 1973, p.31), where set terms of

Government leads to rushed public works projects and

grandiose schemes of political populism. Brasilia itself

represents clearly the difference between perception and

the reality; in the political sense by the hyperbole of

the progress mantra and ‘historical destiny’ over economic

realities (Epstein, 1976, p.41), and architecturally

through the value put on space over place. Most apparent

in the early character of Brasilia was the emptiness that

had resulted from the pure perceptive devices of the

architecture to create ‘spaces’ and the subsequent

appropriation and transformation of these spaces by the

cities inhabitants into ‘places’.

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4.Appropriation of use by the inhabitants. This secondary artery was ‘claimed’ for a different use than was originally planned.

2.Le Corbusier’s theories for the ideal modern city formed a great influence on the planning of Brasilia.

3.’Ideal’ spaces deny actual use and negate ‘place’. The result is the loneliness of pure perception.

It is within these contrasting parameters of the ideal and

the real that Brasilia as a city is best evaluated.

ORIGINS:

Brasilia has quite complex origins that cannot be separated

from an inherent national identity. These origins include

geographical, social, political and economical criteria. As

a symbol of an emergent thriving country, Brasilia was to

redefine Brazil as an economic power, claiming and taming

the interior of the vast landscape in a ‘westward march of

colonial continental destiny’ (Epstein, 1973,p.42) that

would centralize communications and result in a maturation

for the nation. Removed from the coastal areas that hampered

productivity through beguiling beauty, Brasilia was planned

as an image of the new country as modern and progressive.

Such high expectations were contained within a political

environment of expediency and populism. Objective rationale

such as centralizing routes and bureaucratic efficiency

always contained an attached subjective rationale such as

the aforementioned clearing of the interior as destiny or

the romance of the

‘automotive’ city(even though a car was

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5.Geographical and economical conditions determined the centralised location for the new City. Militaristic conditions were also an underlying factor.

a luxury to many). Additionally, the location suited the

military as a secure area and as such both the interior

site and Costa’s scheme were deemed appropriate for these

reasons, preventing as they did any spontaneous growth and

thereby enabling ensured stability.

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6.The location of the city in the country’s interior satisfied economical, military, and spiritual demands, as did Costa’s scheme of tightly zoned areas.

8.The winning plan by Lucio Costa.8.The monumental axis runs N-S(up/down) and the residential commercial E-W. Much of the plan was altered in usage to the detriment of the overall plan. The rigid zones suited governmental control concerns.

7.A man made landscape as a symbol of progress and man’s dominance over nature. Everything in this photograph is man made, including the lake.

In what seems like a fortuitous and

somewhat ironic occurrence, the

tenets of Modern architecture such

as uniform building heights,

standardized components and strict

separation of zones, whilst conveying

the modern progress the government

demanded, also gave a sense of regularity

and control suited to the required military means.

Relieving population pressures in

other cities and stimulating regional growth in

towns that would surround Brasilia

were also reasons for the choice of

location whereby smaller towns would

benefit from the improved highway

infrastructure generated from the

larger capital.

These rationale are all reasonable and admirable in their

own way for such a project. It is the scale of works within

such restrictive time frames, and deviations from many

original ‘models’ that allowed criticism of the emergent

scheme. In short, fundamentals were put in place that lacked

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9.Modernist architectural theory dominates the planning of Brasilia. An automotive city of ideal proportion and harmony that forgot to create places for people. The clover off ramps are too tight in radius & cause accidents. Pedestrians crossing the highways are killed on a regular basis.

10.Distances without a car were impractical. Public transport was expensive and inefficient. Cars were a luxury item.

11.Highway infrastructure linking Brasilia to other centres was one success of the project.

any complexity. Economic and architectural concerns were

placed ahead of social and cultural provisions. In its

monumental, symbolic and elite orientated development the

lifestyle of the minority was satisfied at the expense of

the majority. Such deviations cannot be attributed to the

planners as much as the government apparatus controlling

development. Certain parts of Costa’s plan, and most

importantly the more socially benevolent of these, such as

an entertainment sector near the axis union, were eradicated

in rationalization procedures.

The result of such intervention

was a situation that created a highly stratified society. A

differentiation by economy was always planned and the

quality of building materials was the main device used to

achieve this. However, as prices escalated the less wealthy

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12.Monumental. Architecture as objects. Much of the architecture looks terrific, but is not functional. As monumental symbols the architecture succeeds, but only from an aesthetic viewpoint. This style of architecture produces space of no hierarchy and subsequently is not spontaneously used. Spatial islands of objects instead of places are produced.

were pushed to the margins and began settling in satellite

towns on the fringes of the city.

Such isolation also

served to quell any possible

riot possibilities.

Building workers, who

had settled temporarily in the city during construction were

equally dismissed. Strict zoning and labelling of ‘sectors’

in the planned city advertised one’s social standing

directly. The rigid layout of the residential sector not

only extended to building type, but to use. Only families

were catered for, excluding singles or otherwise inclined

residents and the modernity of the International Style

architecture was soon seen to be rather monotonous, dreary

and stilted, further reinforced by deteriorating materials

from the labour methods employed. Furthermore, convenience

and comfort were compromised by the tyranny of distance the

planning for the automobile had produced. From these

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13.Satellite towns are a sign of the spontaneous growth of the city, and often have more sense of place than the planned city.

14.Spontaneous growth satellite towns interesting in their grid development. The developers of Brasilia could not include these settlements into the ideal.

shortcomings, produced directly from the politics of a fast

transfer and the submission to an ideal removed from the day

to day existence of the majority, emerged nonetheless

certain developments that speak of what a city actually is.

That is, a place inhabited by people as opposed to a rigidly

zoned aesthetic. In Brasilia evidence of human intervention

and adaptation of space to suit certain needs developed.

Fences were pegged out and gardens created. Rigid

circulation routes were adjusted as required. Soccer goals

replaced basketball hoops. Namely, multi-dimensional places

emerged through a particular use. The aforementioned fringe

communities developed as a product of the nation’s economy,

a reality that could not be escaped. Future developments are

predicted where the monumental planned city may become a

small anomaly within the larger more spontaneous sprawl.

( Evenson, 1973, p.182)

Brasilia remains an intriguing study of the harmony and

proportion of objects in space as representative symbols of

monumentality and power. Essentially the city has a beauty

that lacks life. The original Pilot Plan lacked the dynamic

interaction that makes gradual evolution of a city possible

and illustrates the importance of people to the life of a

city. Nevertheless, the scheme succeeded on a larger scale,

focusing the country on a national level and connecting

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infrastructure through the building of roads. In this way,

Brasilia covered the fundamentals. The complexities may yet

develop with time.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Brazilian Embassy, Brasilia: History, City Planning, Architecture, Building, UMA Publicacao Acropole, Brazil, 1960

Deakin University AV Department, Brasilia: Monumental Capital and its Cost

Epstein, David G., Brasilia: Plan and Reality, A Study of Planned and Spontaneous Urban Development, University of California Press, Los Angeles, 1973

Evenson, Norma, Two Brazilian Capitals: Architecture and Urbanism in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1973

World Wide Web, Various Images.

IMAGE SOURCES:

1.Evenson, 1973, 141.2.ibid., 146,1473.Brazilian Embassy, 1960.4. ibid.5. ibid.6. ibid.7. ibid.8.Evenson, op.cit., 1449.Brazilian Embassy, 1960.10. ibid.11. ibid.12. ibid.13. Evenson, op.cit., 15414. Brazilian Embassy, 1960.

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SRA 341 THE CITY (X)OFF CAMPUS MODEASSIGNMENT 1RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT ON THE PLANNED CITY OF BRASILIA

STUDENT: JOHN LEONARD 201042293UNIT CHAIR: GUENTER LEHMANN

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