Origin and Evolution

Of Brasilia

Seminar Report

Submitted by
Swapna M K,
MPlanning,
School of architecture,
Govt.Engg.College Thrissur.
Origin and Evolution Of Brasilia 2015

Masters in Planning, SOA, Government Engineering College, Thrissur. 1

 Origin and Evolution Of Brasilia 2015

1. INTRODUCTION

Brasilia, the capital of BRAZIL created in the center of the country in 1956, was a landmark
in the history of town planning. Lucio Costa designed Brasilia at a time when most planners
thought that cities would reach an optimum size, beyond which they would become
unmanageable. Many thought that it was the duty of planners and government to prevent cities
from growing beyond this optimum limit.

Brasilia population target, set at 500,000 inhabitants, was reached around 1970. Apparently a
believer in the myth of a city’s optimum size, Costa designed Brasilia without any plans for
expansions. Deliberate or not, the lake surrounding the center city to the South East and the
enormous national park located to the North West are inbuilt immovable obstacles that prevent
any contiguous spatial expansion.

The concept of a meticulously designed city with a fixed population became later the curse of
Brasilia. The decision by UNESCO to name Brasilia a World Heritage Site in 1987 contributed
to further freeze Brasilia into an icon of modernist architecture and planning. The original design
concept that created Brasilia – a city designed entirely for the automobile around 2 highways
crossing each other’s and where pedestrian and bicycle trips are nearly impossible contradicts all
modern urban principle and has no roots in the rich traditions of Brazilian architecture and
planning.

The government, complete control of the land within the federal district surrounding the
Plano Piloto provided a false assurance that it would be possible to preserve the abstract concept
of a scientifically designed city of an optimum size. Illegal subdivisions appeared early in the
history of Brasilia but failed to warn government planners that the finite city concept was
fallacious. The hope to control population growth was also associated with a desire to control the
income of migrants. Brasilia was built under the illusion that only middle class households will
inhabit it. Government’s planners felt that by preserving the high infrastructure and housing
standards of the original design they would set an example of “good urban planning”. Migration
to Brasilia was to be restricted to households with a sufficient income to afford the high standards
provided within the Plano Piloto.

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 Origin and Evolution Of Brasilia 2015

2. LOCATION

Brasília was the third capital of Brazil from 1960 onwards. The first two Brazilian capitals,
Salvador (1549-1763) and Rio de Janeiro (1763-1960), were built by the coast. Since the second
half of 18th century, the governants (the Portuguese King, the Brazilian Emperors and the
Brazilian Presidents of the Republic) had interest in moving the capital to a more interior area,
less exposed to maritime raids.

Before Brasilia, the capital of Brazil was Rio

de Janeiro (1763-1960). Brasilia was about 600
miles away from Rio de Janeiro. The prime
purpose to develop the new capital was to open up
the past and almost unpopulated and
underdeveloped areas of central Brazil. Some
Planners called it the practical example of
development of regional areas. The dual purpose
of this capital was the Regional development and for the Administrative purpose.

Brasília often refers to the Distrito Federal

(Federal District), having area 5,802 sq.m.
Climate is Tropical savannah climate and the
average temperature is 20.5 °C (68.9 °F). The
population of Brasilian federal district is of
26,06,885. Population density was
435.98 inhabitants per square kilometre.
(According to IBGE 2009 census) Brasilia is the
largest city (by population) in the world at the
close of the 20th century that didn't exist at the beginning of the century. The Human
Development Index in the city is at 0.936 in the year 2000, (developed nation level), and the
illiteracy rate is around 4.35%. Brasilia is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The city
is a world reference for urban planning.

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 Origin and Evolution Of Brasilia 2015

3. HISTORICAL TIME INE

In 1823, José Bonifácio de Andrade e Silva, one of the mentors of the Brazilian
Independence (conquered in 1822), is one to propose the moving, already suggesting the name
Brasília. In 1891, the first Constitution of the Brazilian Republic (proclaimed in 1889)
determined that a new capital would be built. In 1894, an area of 14,400 sq. km was reserved for
the capital.

On September 7th 1922, the first stone of Brasília is laid, in a spot which today is
administered by Planaltina, one of the satellite cities of Brasília. In the term of President Eurico
Gaspar Dutra (1946-1950), Brazil was living a prosperous period (the war had approached Brazil
and USA), and the changing of capital left the paper to become reality.

In 1955, the Comission for the New Federal Capital chose the spot in which Brasília would
be built. In 1956, Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira is elected President and creates the Company
of Urbanization of the New Capital (NOVACAP). Kubitschek invites a young architect, Oscar
Niemeyer, to command the project. In the same year of 1956, the work on site starts. In 1957, a
public contest is won by urbanist Lúcio Costa, who presented the innovative ideas for the design
of the new capital, in his work which became known as Plano Piloto (Pilot Plan).

Right from the beginning, the growth of Brasília was superior to the plannings. According to
the original plans, Brasília would be a city for government authorities and staff. However, during
the construction period, many Brazilians from all over the country (but particularly from the
Northern and Northeastern regions) migrated to Brasília; these migrants were called
"candangos". The candangos were supposed to go back home when Brasília was finished, but
most didn't; many just couldn't afford leaving, and most saw Brasília an opportunity for a better
life. To accommodate the candangos, small villages were built in the vicinities of the Pilot Plan.
As more and more migrants were attracted by the opportunities of the growing capital, these
villages grew and became the Cidades Satélies (Satellite cities) of Brasília.

Until the 1980s, the mayor of Brasília was appointed by the Federal Government, and the
laws of Brasília were issued by the Federal Senate. After the Constitution of 1998, Brasília
gained the right to elect its Governor, and a District Assembly was elected to exercise the
Legislative Power.
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 Origin and Evolution Of Brasilia 2015

4. PLANNING EVOLUTION

The 'pilot plan' that Costa drew up for Brasilia

was one of great expressive power. As he himself
described it, it was born of the initial gesture of
someone designating a place and taking possession
of it: a cross formed by two bars intersecting at
right angles. This figure was then adapted to the
topography and the natural slope of the ground: its
orientation was improved by curving the arms of
one of the crossbars. The curving north-south axis
traces the layout of the wide transportation artery.
Along it are the residential zones separated into
superquadrats, all practically self-contained, and
each possessing its own commercial and leisure centres, green spaces, schools, churches, etc.

The perpendicular east-west axis, known as the

Monumental Axis, links the administrative sections
of the new city, which became the official capital in
1960. Oscar Niemeyer's most renowned edifices
were built there. They are noteworthy for the purity
of their forms and their obvious monumental
character, the result of an intelligent balance
between horizontal and vertical buildings,
rectangular volumes and curved surfaces, and the raw, unfinished materials and polished
exteriors of certain structures.

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 Origin and Evolution Of Brasilia 2015

Among the most beautiful buildings in the urban landscape of Brasilia are those sited
around the Plaza of Three Powers, the Planalto Palace, or the Hall of Government, the Congress,
with its twin skyscrapers flanked by the cupola of the Senate building and by the inverted cone of
the House of Representatives, and finally the Supreme Court. Other structures of an exceptional
artistic quality are the Esplanade of the Ministers, the cathedral, the Pantheon of Juscelino
Kubitschek and the National Theatre.

Cathedral National Congress Building

LAYOUT PLAN

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 Origin and Evolution Of Brasilia 2015

5. DESIGN ASPECTS
Brasilia is a definitive example of 20th century modernist urbanism. The city brought
together ideas of grand administrative centres and public spaces with new ideas of urban living as
promoted by Le Corbusier in six storey housing blocks (quadras) supported on pylons which
allowed the landscape to flow beneath and around them. The city’s planning is noteworthy for
the remarkable congruence of Lucio Costa’s urban design (the ‘Plano Piloto’) and Oscar
Niemeyer’s architectural creations, most powerfully reflected in the intersection between the
monumental and thoroughfare axes, which stands as the determining factor of the city’s urban
scheme and underscores the representative character of Three Powers Square (Praça dos Três
Poderes) and the Esplanade of the Ministries (Esplanada dos Ministérios), also manifest in the
geometry of the National Congress and in the new approach to urban living embodied in the
Neighborhood Units (Unidade de Vizinhança) and their corresponding Superblocks
(Superquadras).

COMMERCIAL AREA SUPER QUADRAS

Brasilia is a unique example of urban planning brought to fruition in the 20th century, an
expression of the urban principles of the Modernist Movement as set out in the 1943 Athens
Charter, in Le Corbusier’s 1946 treatise How to Conceive Urbanism, and in the architectural
designs of Oscar Niemeyer, including the buildings of the three powers (Presidential Palace,
Supreme Court and Congress with its twin highrise buildings flanked by the cupola of the Senate
building and by the inverted one of the House of Representatives), and the Cathedral with its 16
parabaloids 40 metres in height, the Pantheon of Juscelino Kubitschek and the National Theatre.

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 Origin and Evolution Of Brasilia 2015

6. CONCLUSION
Juscelino Kubitschek, or JK, had the motto
"fifty years in five"; his plan was to makeBrazil
grow during his five year term as much as the
previous fifty years; JK invited car makers (like
Ford, GM and Volkswagen) to come to Brazil, and
opened several highways (in detriment of railways)
to stimulate cars selling. However, JK's darling was
Brasília; to have the city finished still during his
term, he didn't hesitate in allocating financial and
human resources into the works; several Boeings were rented to fly cement, sand and other
supriments into the sites. Juscelino was so obsessed with the idea of being founder of Brasília,
that he officially opened the city on April 22 1960, before it was finished.

The original design concept that created Brasilia – a city designed entirely for the automobile
around 2 highways crossing each other’s and where pedestrian and bicycle trips are nearly
impossible contradicts all modern urban principle and has no roots in the rich traditions of
Brazilian architecture and planning.

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Origin and Evolution Of Brasilia 2015

REFERENCES

1. AEJ MORRIS ; HISTORY OF URBAN FORMS

2. SATHISH CHANDRA AGARWAL; ARCHITECTURE AND TOWN LANNING
3. K C RANGAWALA ; TOWN PLANNING
4. ALAIN BERTAUD ; BRASILIA SPATIAL STRUCTURE: BETWEEN
THE CULT OF DESIGN AND MARKETS.
5. about Brasilia .com

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