Modernist Brasilia:

A Critical Assessment
Alastair Punch
GAN Qihang
LIN Yuanfang
MEI Jiarong
Nada Alanbarl
Content
1 Overview of Brasilia

2 Actors

3 Planning Approaches Analysis

4 Assumptions & Hybridity

5 Treatment of Social Justice

1. Overview of Brasilia
• Le Corbusier’s obsession with order and uniformity
• President Juscelino Kubitschek:“50 years of progress in 5
years”(Scott, 1998)
• Strictly administrative capital
• State owned land
• A city of the future,
A city of development, a realizable utopia

Map of the Federal District (Costa & Lee, 2019)

 1. Overview of Brasilia
• Key Features

Functionalism in Brasília described by the urban planner Lucio Costa

District (Costa & Lee, 2019)

Metropolitan Cathedral Construction of

Early sketch of the Brasilia city plan The National Congress
under construction residential areas
2. Actors
The President (Juscelino
Kubitschek) and the Brazilian
government Residents of satellite cities

International jury of Oscar Niemeyer Commuting workers

national competition as construction of Brasilia
nears its end
3. Planning Approaches Analysis
• Context
Why relocate the capital from Rio de Janeiro?

“ Building a modernist capital from

scratch would have a positive effect
on the creation of a more modern
Brazilian society.
”
3. Planning Approaches Analysis
• Pilot Plan

(Holston, 1989)
• Pilot Plan

① Car Mobility

Primary axes
• made of highways
• Pilot Plan

① Car Mobility

Wings
• Residential blocks
• Pilot Plan

① Car Mobility

Heart of the city

• Theaters, restaurants, cinemas
and the central bus station
• Pilot Plan

 Architectural style ① Car Mobility

 Geometric layout

Most of the fuselage

• Major buildings of the
Brasílian government
• Pilot Plan

② Aesthetics
 Architectural style ① Car Mobility
 Geometric layout
 Raised on
pillars

Residential sectors
• Major buildings of the
Brasílian government
• Pilot Plan

③ Functionality
• an elementary school EACH 1 block ① Car Mobility
• a shopping street EACH 2 blocks
• a larger park EACH 4 blocks ② Aesthetics
• a district hospital EACH 8 blocks

Residential sectors
• Major buildings of the
Brasílian government
3. Planning Approaches Analysis
• Modernist Planning
Elements Analysis
①Car Mobility • Traffic flow ↑ (Travels, movement of goods & services)
• Supported legislation (Job opportunities, affordable cars)
• Migrant workers with low-quality homes
• New rich city v.s. Poor working class

②Aesthetics • Moral & civic virtue

• Difficult to meet modern tastes
③Functionalit • Principles of functionalism
y • Separation of urban functions
• Community interaction and social connections↓
• Cultural aspects ↓
3. Planning Approaches Analysis
• Rational Comprehensive Planning (RCP)
RCP Elements Analysis
Rational: Use of the scientific method based Using specialist knowledge skills as well
on the principle of rationality (Cardoso & as methodologies to provide viable
Breda‐Vázquez, 2007) urban planning solutions for Brasilia
Comprehensive: Developing a vision for Favours the protection of the public
Brasilia that serves the national and public interest and guides the community
interest (Wenocur, 1976) towards the desired long-term
future (Hobbs & Doling, 1981)
Periodicity: Evaluation of the plan developed A wide range of options were considered
in the previous phase and selection of more to ensure the implementation of the
suitable alternatives (Hudson et al., 1979) best possible action plan
4. Assumptions
•Costa’s Mitigation of social divide via
modernist designs
•State interest and public interest in sync
•Government land ownership = Democracy
•Decolonization by relocation
•Economic growth via architectural design
• ↑Government-managed industrialization
initiatives ↑Economic growth
• Erasure of Public Space
4. Hybridity

• Application of Hybrid Planning

Approaches:
Architecture of Freeways, axial lines
 5. Treatment of Social Justice
 Spatial segregation
• Market forces marginalized lower-
income and poor residents
• By 1980, 75% of the population of
Brasilia lived in peripheral areas
• Closest satellite city is 12 miles away
from the city centre
• Long commute times, resulting in
Population density of the Federal District (2015)
significant time and financial costs
 5. Treatment of Social Justice
 Elimination of informal public
spaces
• No streets corners, squares, small
parks and sidewalk cafes(Scott,
Residential street in the neighborhood in São Paulo and Brasilia
1998)
• Only roads and highways
• Difficult to walk around as a
pedestrian
City squares in São Paulo and Brasilia
 5. Treatment of Social Justice
 Segregation of living environments
• Separation of work from residence
and of both from commerce and
entertainment
• Abuse of Superquadra
• Segregation of space between
different living units
Superquadra
5. Treatment of Social Justice
• From Practice to Theory
Case study source: Holanda

Social justice in planning theory – the concepts

• Soja, 2009: Spatial injustice
• Fraser, 1995: Re-distribution
• Dadashpoor and Alvandipour, 2020: No concept of Social Justice in Modernist Planning/RCP

Do we see them?
• Regional level: Re-distribution/spatial justice through moving the seat of government
• Federal District level: Representation as ‘public interest’ with state intervention

Social Justice in Modernist Planning/RCP?

 References
• Holanda, Frederico& Mota, Ana & Leite, Antônio & Soares, Laura & Garcia, Patrícia. (2002). Eccentric Brasilia. Urban Design International. 7. 19-28.
10.1057/palgrave.udi.9000063.
• Holston, J. (1989). The modernist city: An anthropological critique of Brasília. University of Chicago Press.
• Scott, J. C. (1998). Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. Yale University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1nq3vk
◦ Cardoso, R., & Breda‐Vázquez, I. (2007). Social justice as a guide to planning theory and practice: Analyzing the portuguese planning system. International Journal of Urban and
Regional Research, 31(2), 384–400. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2007.00729.x
◦ Hudson, B. M., Galloway, T. D., & Kaufman, J. L. (1979). Comparison of current planning theories: Counterparts and contradictions. Journal of the American Planning
Association, 45(4), 387–398. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944367908976980
◦ Wenocur, S. (1976). A pluralistic planning model for United Way Organizations. Social Service Review, 50(4), 586–600. https://doi.org/10.1086/643429
◦ Hobbs, F. D., & Doling, J. F. (1981b). THE PLANNING PROCESS. In Planning for Engineers and Surveyors (pp. 100–135). Elsevier.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-025459-3.50011-2
◦ Costa, Cayo & Lee, Sugie.(2019). The Evolution of Urban Spatial Structure in Brasília: Focusing on the Role of Urban Development Policies.Sustainability,11(2),553.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su11020553

Additional Sources:

• Web Sources:
• https://www.archdaily.com/995055/brasilia-architecture-guide
• https://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/newsletters
• https://www.mcmdaily.com/gallery/old-brasilia-gallery/