Brasilia, Distrito Federal: Utopian City

My first exposure to Brasilia was in 2005 when I was studying artchitecture and urban planning. Brasilia was designed to be a utopian city under the then communist leadership of the Brasilian government. It is today considered to be one of the most significant city constructions of the 20th century.

In 1950, the capital city of Brazil was Rio de Janeiro. The government had had the idea to move the capital to the interior to promote economic expansion in the center of the country and also increase the accessibility of the capital to peoples from all areas of Brazil. At the end of the 19th century a priest had had a vision when visiting the location where Brasilia now sits that this place would one day be the seat of government for the country.

Ground broke for Brasilia in 1956 and was inaugurated in 1960. Even though the entire government administration moved to Brasilia overnight, the city was by no means ready in 1960. The plan for the city was designed in the shape of an airplane, which still exists today. It was meant to house up to 250,000 residents which were all supposed to be government employees and their families. The town is devided into sectors symmetrically in the North and South wings of the plane. Each block, called a quadra, is numbered with the odds being on the west side of the main avenue and the evens being on the east side. Sectors include the hotel sector (north and south), banking sector, leisure sector, and park sector. The residential areas are all appartment buildings with similar appearance. Originially each housing unit was designed to belong to a specific ministery so people who worked together also lived together. Today there is still an area which is primarily occupied by army people whom have a special bus to collect them in the morning,

The residential areas all also have small commercial blocks within their neighbourhoods with small grocery stores and so forth. However, since every unit is an exact replication of the previous, I was unable to distinguish at all between the neighbourhoods.

The main body of the city plan (see view above) is where the goverment buildings are located which is also where the main architectural works of Oscar Niemeyer are on display. He, now 103 and living in Rio de Janeiro, was the main architect for the city and most of the buildings bear his name.

Here for example is the National Museum - which currently has an exposing photography exhibit about Brazilian resource industries and interactions with Amazonian natives. As you can see the building is very modern and surrounded by concrete. Apparently, when the engineers got the blue prints, they approached Mr. Niemeyer to alter the positioning of the building to reduce sun exposure by 30% and consequently the heat factor of the building. Oscar Niemeyer would not have his designs tampered with and refused the suggestion.
Today the sectors still stand and all construction in the Federal District of Brasilia, like Washington DC in the states, are protected by UNESCO heritage, and cannot be altered. Above the construction for the 2014 FIFA World Cup stadium is well underway. The fact that the city was organized and devided into these sectors will actually greatly help Brasilia hosting the FIFA games. The reason is in the city plan all the hotels of the city (literally) are clustered together right beside the sport sector which means all spectators and athletes will be living right beside the stadium and can walk there!

The city was designed for cars as it was conceived in the 1950s when car usage was imagined as THE method of transportation of the future. Normally parked cars and parking lots detract from a city scape, but here I think it adds. You are really able to see the intentions of the city plan and how it was conceived by the way the ministries are surrounded by the cars of their employees.
One of Oscar Niemeyer's best works in the city is the Cathedral. Originally this place was designed to be a place of worship with no denomination. And though the Brazilian government say claim not to favour any religion, the building was turned into a cathedral.
Each of the quadra are identified by these posts located on all four corners of each block. This is how people navigate through the city and some claim without the signs, even native Brasiliarians would get lost.
I went on a bus tour on my first day of visit which was probably one of the best bus tours I have ever been on. Not becuase the information shared was particularly special, but because the city has been designed and preserved as an outdoor museum. Normally when on a bus tour and they say 'on your right you will see...' everyone is looking to try and locate what is being talked about. In Brasilia, each masterpiece building was flanked by the next and this made for a very impressive tour.

One of the place we visited was the official residence of the president of Brazil, which is their equivalent Whitehouse, which is where I took this picture with the guard.

Other important bits of information about the city is that in order to make it a hospitable living environment, the government knew they would have to creat a water source, so they constructed a massive (unbelievably massive) artificial lake which is also symmetrical with the city.

Though Brasilia was designed for 250,000 people, which was originally maintained because all food, supplies and people could only access the city by plane, once transportation was improved connectin Brasilia by roadway to the rest of the country, the city exploded. It now houses 2 million people and is consequently more congested. However it is difficult to tell that Brasilia is so populated because it is very sprawled and the city rules prevent any buildings over 4 stories from being constructed other than in the hotels district. This was to maintain the horizon of the landscape which had indeed been very effective.

On a more modern day note, a strange experience for me was the payment process when going out. When you arrive at a bar or restaurant, you are registered and receive a plastic card. This card is what gets scanned everytime you consume something. At the end of the night is when you pay your entire bill and need the card to ring zero in order to be let out of the establishment you were frequenting. Everytime I pulled for my money to buy something people looked at me strangly before I remembered my card.