After a week in the National Parks, we had a complete change of scenery and visited Brasilia, Brazil’s futuristic capital. Brasilia has been long since planned as Brazil’s new capital city away from the, at times, vulnerable cities on the coast to invaders. It was also an opportunity to open up and cement government control to the interior of Brazil, with the vast lands and mineral wealth there. However, it was not until 1956, under the visionary President Juscelino Kubitscheck, known as JK to Brazilians, that the city was consecrated.
After 1,000 days the city was fully up and running as the new capital of Brazil, a remarkable feat when one considers that it took the same time to build the 2014 World Cup Stadium in Brasilia. The city is shaped like an aeroplane or bird with its head facing an artificial lake. The city is designed round specialist areas in the centre, essentially along the fuselage of the plane, with the three pillars of government in the cockpit, the Executive President, the Senate and Congress. The 17 Ministries then follow, before the Cathedral and the Hotel Sector. Finally in the rear of the fuselage is the city government.
The wings contain the main population centres, each with housing all designed in a similar external shape of no more than nine floors, with open areas at the ground level to aid the unimpeaded movement of people. In between the buildings are green areas and open parks complete with sports pitches. The commercial shops form a perimeter to each area and the streets are all one way aiding the control of traffic and the safety of the citizens. In addition each area has a primary school, religious buildings and other essential facilities for a community. The smaller houses will all have their garage at the front at street level and their main garden and outdoor space at the rear.
Navigating round the city is done through a grid system rather than street names, with odd and even numbered blocks either side of the main connecting arterial road. The whole city is build around the car and road transport. Today the city has over five million inhabitants, many of whom live in the outer suburbs. There is a comprehensive bus network that transports people to the main bus station right in the centre of the city. Today the buses are crowded and fill up almost at once, and with very few passengers getting off in the intermediate stops makes it a challenge to get on the bus other that at the start of its journey.
Many of the world’s premier modern architects have left their mark on Brasilia, none more so than Oscar Niemeyer, who’s plan formed the whole framework for the city. Particularly impressive are three of the main churches:
• Igrejinha Nossa Senhora de Fátima, the first church to be build in Brasilia in 1957 with a simple curved roof like a sail and beautiful blue Portuguese tiles on it’s exterior.
• Santuário Dom Bosco, a square concrete building, with symmetrical pointed arches all with coloured glass and a single ceiling totally supported from the walls, with a massive chandelier hanging from the centre. All the walls apart from the four corners have blue stained glass, in multiple different shades of blue, with the darker colours closer to the roof, giving the impression of serenity and the sky. The four corners have purple glass, again in different shades, and the contrast of the purples and blues gives out a clever sensation of space.
• Catedral Metropolitana, is one of the most eye catching pieces of modern architecture in the world. The exterior of the cathedral is shaped like Christ’s crown of thorns and has a small moat of water that reflect in the stained glass windows. Suspended from the ceiling are three aluminium sculptures of angels and outside the entrance are four sculptures of the gospels. The main floor of the cathedral is a single open space and is below street level. The whole cathedral has a massive serene feeling of space. To the right of the cathedral is a separate bell tower, shaped like a goblet, with three bells.
Next door to the Catedral Metropolitana is the Museu Nacional, another space age design, that is shaped like a flat dome with beautifully sloped ramps taking visitors to the huge airy exhibition room.
Further down the fuselage is the TV Tower, offering views of Brasilia, but was closed at the time of our visit, and the main Football Stadium that was built for the 2014 World Cup. Today the only teams in Brasilia are in the fourth division, so since the World Cup and the Olympics two years later the Stadium has been used principally for concerts and exhibitions.
Sitting at the far end of the main avenue is the museum and monument dedicated to President Juscelino Kubitscheck, who stands in a crescent on top of a large statue overlooking the city. After Kubitscheck’s first term and while waiting for the next opportunity to be President – Brazil limits presidential terms to five years, then there must be a gap of five years before a former president can stand again, Brazil suffered a military coup in 1964. It was during the military dictatorship, Kubitscheck was killed in a motor accident in 1976. To this day there are suspicions as to whether he was deliberately killed, however not withstanding this, Kubitscheck’s personal reputation as the founding father of modern Brazil remains intact.
Nearby Kubitscheck’s memorial is the military parade ground, again a striking piece of modern architecture. What is particularly interesting are the echoes that resonate from under the main canopy. Depending on where you are, the length of the echo varies enormously.
On the shores of Lago do Paranoa is a whole entertainment complex with sports grounds, clubs, bars and restaurants. The lake also has one of the biggest collection of boats in all Brazil. Which when one considers the thousands of kilometres of coast line and also the number of million plus cities on the coast is a remarkable statistic.
Oscar Niemeyer has certainly created one of the most remarkable and also beautiful modern cities in the world. His architecture, with all its curves based on the female form is quite unique. The futuristic city has certainly stood the test of time, based on the vision in the 1950s and 1960s. The major drawback in today’s society is the almost total reliance on the motor car, especially with scale of the distances involved in the city, but notwithstanding this, the ideas of integrated communities within the city are very much an ideal for all modern cities today.
Date: 18/11/2018 to 19/11/2018