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From The Times
April 5, 2008
A new vision of Brasilia
The capital of Brazil was the embodiment of a socialist dream. But what remains of it now?
I drive into Brasília, agog to discover whether I'll be truly moved by this heroic creation - at once a vast piece of contemporary art and a utopian model of an egalitarian modern city.
Brasília, started just 50 years ago as the new and visionary capital of Brazil, was - in its architecture, in its plan and in its mix of uses - to symbolise the radical artistic and political ideas of its communist creators, President Kubitschek and the architect Oscar Niemeyer.
For years I've longed to discover if this huge and heady political statement actually works as a place in which to spend time, live and work. What type of urban life has been nurtured in a Modernist city created in splendid isolation in the remote heart of Brazil on a site that was, in 1956, 600km (370 miles) from the nearest paved road?
My car arrives at what appears to be an interminable lawn. I wonder where on earth I can be. I stare around, striving to see the city centre, and then realise I'm in it. So extensive is the plan, so generous the planting, that I've arrived in Brasília almost without warning. I walk up a slight incline to get a better view.
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The place seems deserted. In the far distance are small knots of people, dwarfed by the regimented rows of identical-looking government ministries. I turn and see the elemental congress building, with its huge white bowl, a gigantic saucer dome and closely set twin towers. Beyond is the presidential palace.
I've arrived at the future - or at least the future as conceived in the 1950s. I'm in the symbolic heart of the city, at the square of the three powers. Here, along with the president's palace and the congress building - containing the house of the deputies and the senate - is the Palácio do Supremo Tribunal, the palace of justice. Niemeyer designed all these buildings.
I walk to the congress building. It's a strange creation. Its base is formed by a low, flat-roofed building that forms a sort of acropolis, a sacred mound, with the huge structures on top - the bowl and the saucer dome - acting as temples, Brasília's versions of the Parthenon.
The bowl-shaped structure houses the chamber of the deputies, its form symbolising that debate here is open to all ideologies. The domed structure also suggests that reflection and balance are all important. Everything here is rich in meaning - modern yet antique, rational but almost religious in it patriotism.
Niemeyer's architecture is good. He explained that he wanted his buildings to reflect the nature of Brazil: the curves of its mountains, the clouds of its skies and, as he put it, “the lover”.
He also admitted a predilection for the curvaceous form of the “Baroque buttocks” of a Brazilian beauty. So both these buildings have glass-faced façades framed by minimal but sensuous curving columns that taper to support flat roofs.
What is it like to live in the city? I drive slowly through it. The plan of Brasília is as bold and symbolic as its architecture. Conceived by Lucio Costa, Brasília's basic form is simplicity itself. Costa envisioned the city in terms of two major intersecting avenues, each formed by wide freeways divided by well-planted central reservations.
One avenue was to be straight and lined with government buildings, with the congress building at one end. The second avenue, set at right angles to the first, was to curve with the form of the terrain, and be lined with residential and shopping blocks.
So the cruciform plan, in the optimistic machine-age spirit of the 1950s, took the form of an aircraft with the congress building at its head, in the pilot's seat, ministries along its fuselage, housing and shopping along its curved wings and, where the engines would be, offices and commercial buildings.
To get the feel of the place, I visit the housing blocks located along the curving avenue - the “wing”. This housing was designed by Costa and is a series of six to eight-storey slabs placed around well-planted squares. Each square is called a superquadra (“super square”) and the roads that divide each superquadra are lined with shops and restaurants.
Originally each superquadra was to be a self-supporting community and a model of egalitarian living with, for example, a judge living next to a plumber. But this vision has long crumbled.
Brasília was built by a regime that wanted a city to reflect the achievements and values of a modern socialist society, yet Brasília is now the capital of a country in which the disparity between rich and poor is among the most extreme in the world.
The revolutionary political origins of the city seem long forgotten. Now it glories in being an efficient centre of government administration and, bizarrely, an international attraction for UFO-spotting New Age mystics. I enter a superquadra, find a bar full of locals, and drink a powerful caipir-inha.
Yes, I'm living the Modernist dream, if not exactly the dream envisioned by Brasília's socialist creators. I have to admit, I like this place - and the alcohol gently eases my sadness at the failure of this radical vision.
NEED TO KNOW
Getting there Last Frontiers (01296 653000, www.lastfrontiers.com) offers a ten-day tailor-made trip to Brazil featuring three nights in Brasília from £2,024pp with flights from Heathrow on TAP.
Where to stay For a hotel with a flavour of Brasília's distinct character go to the Brasília Alvorada hotel (00 55 61 3424 7018, www.brasiliaalvorada.com.br, doubles from £115). The hotel is fairly recent but its architecture and furniture continue the Modernist manner with great aplomb.
Where to eat and drink Bars and restaurants can be found dotted throughout the city although most inhabit the commercial streets that separate the superquadra. A good example is the Don'Durica (SCLN 201, 00 55 61 3326 1045) that offers a self-serve buffet typical of the country.
Its main component is a stew called feijoade, a tasty medley of black beans and pork served in various ways. Derived from slave food, it is made from cheap ingredients and left-overs - and all washed down with rum or strong, sugar-cane cachaca. It's now the national dish.
One of the oldest and more pleasant bars in the city is Beirute (SCLS 109, 3244 1717), serving Middle Eastern food. If you're in Brasília for rock music, try Gate's Pub (SCLS 403, 3225 4576) but if you want something more traditional go to the Clube do Choro (Setor de Divulgação Cultural, 3327 0494, www.clubedochoro.com.br) or the Othello Piano Bar (CLN 107 Block D 3272 2066) where, in mellow atmosphere, you can listen to choro music or samba. More info: Brazilian Tourist Board, www.braziltour.com
Adventures in Architecture by Dan Cruickshank (BBC, £20). His new series, Dan Cruickshank's Adventures in Architecture, is on BBC Two, Wednesday
Great read.
I was born here in BrasÃlia, and I've always been fascinated by how bewildering and confusing the city is to most visitors.
Quite often, tourists tell us that Brasilia "doesn't look like a city", because of its careful organisation. Looking at an address, most natives know exactly what to expect, even if we've never been to that part of the city: everything is extremely predictable and simple. Even the weather.
The architecture is, so to speak, the cherry on top of the cake. Just like the idea of super-quadras as independent communities failed, our futuristic buildings have likewise become functionally problematic, and our title of World Heritage Site is like a cast that prevents the city from overcoming these problems.
So, like Dan Cruickshank said, the radical view of those who envisioned a Brazilian utopia in the highlands did fail. However, it was substituted by a pragmatism that helped get their idealism in touch with reality. I like this reality better.
Marcus Lira, BrasÃlia, Brazil