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’.

3.’Ideal’ spaces deny 4.Appropriation of use by the

2.Le Corbusier’s theories for the
ideal modern city formed a great
influence on the planning of
Brasilia.
actual use and negate inhabitants. This secondary
‘place’. The result is the artery was ‘claimed’ for a
loneliness of pure different use than was
perception. originally planned.
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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

5.Geographical and
economical conditions
‘automotive’ city(even though a car was determined the
centralised location for
the new City.
Militaristic conditions
were also an underlying
factor. 3
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.

6.The location of the city in the 7.A man made landscape as a symbol of
country’s interior satisfied economical, progress and man’s dominance over nature.
military, and spiritual demands, as did Everything in this photograph is man made,
Costa’s scheme of tightly zoned areas. including the lake.

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.
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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
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.

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 10.Distances without a car were

impractical. Public transport was
expensive and inefficient. Cars were a
were also reasons for the choice of luxury item.

location whereby smaller towns would

benefit from the improved highway 11.Highway infrastructure

linking Brasilia to other
centres was one success of
infrastructure generated from the the project.

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

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lacked 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.

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.

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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were pushed to the margins and began settling in satellite
13.Satellite
towns are a sign
towns on the fringes of the city. of the
spontaneous
growth of the
Such isolation also city, and often
have more sense
of place than
served to quell any possible the planned
city.

riot possibilities.

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

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

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these 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., 146,147
3.Brazilian Embassy, 1960.
4. ibid.
5. ibid.
6. ibid.
7. ibid.
8.Evenson, op.cit., 144
9.Brazilian Embassy, 1960.
10. ibid.
11. ibid.
12. ibid.
13. Evenson, op.cit., 154
14. Brazilian Embassy, 1960.

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

STUDENT: JOHN LEONARD 201042293

UNIT CHAIR: GUENTER LEHMANN

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