This Sunday, Brasília celebrates another anniversary. And the story of the most planned city in the country will be told by its architecture!
Submitted at Apr 21, 2024, 7:00 AM
Esplanade of Ministries in Brasilia, 2010. (Joana França/Divulgação)
On April 21, 1960 , a project that had been in place since Colonial Brazil finally came to fruition. Throughout the 19th century, the transfer of the country's capital was already a topic on the state's political agenda and was later also considered by Getúlio Vargas during his two terms in office. After the idea was shelved several times, in 1956, President Juscelino Kubitschek began the project. Four years later, Brasília was built.
Since then, the history of Brazil's capital can be told through its outstanding architecture . On this 64th anniversary of Brasília, we rescue architectural landmarks that reveal a series of historical elements of the city.
It could be said that it all began at the bus terminal designed by Lúcio Costa . The Plano Piloto Bus Station is the building that was erected right on top of the site that marks the beginning of the construction of the country's capital, the Ground Zero of Brasília.
However, this is just a symbolic name, because the bus station project only began in 1958. Well before that date, there were already works in the territory, such as Catetinho , the provisional presidential residence inaugurated in 1956, in addition to the occupations of the workers who migrated to work on the construction of the city.
(Arquivo Público do DF/Divulgação/CASACOR)
(Victoria Camara/Divulgação/CASACOR)
Opened on the same day as the Palácio da Alvorada , June 30, 1958, the Brasília Palace Hotel was, for years, the main meeting and socializing space for the first inhabitants of the capital, members of high society, politicians, ambassadors, executives and foreign civil servants. The place orchestrated by Oscar Niemeyer became JK's “darling”, as the president himself described it.
Juscelino's passion for the Palace was justified. The hotel became an icon of glamour and hosted a long list of notable figures , such as the Duchess of Kent, from England, the revolutionary Che Guevara, music stars such as Roberto Carlos, Wilson Simonal, Chico Buarque, Odair José, Raul Seixas and Ney Matogrosso and comedians Mussum and Zacarias. In addition, the space was the setting for the first Miss Brasília pageant in 1959 and in the same year, Tom Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes performed the song “Água de Beber” for the first time.
(Visualhunt/Divulgação/CASACOR)
In 1978, a coffee maker left unplugged caused a fire at the hotel, catastrophic enough to close the establishment for over 20 years. A major renovation was carried out and in 2005 the hotel was rebuilt. with almost all of its original features designed by Niemeyer.
(Divulgação/CASACOR)
Moving forward in time, we have Parque da Cidade — or the place where Eduardo and Mônica met in the song by Legião Urbana. The setting for the famous song was inaugurated in 1978, almost two decades after the city's official birth. The context was one of urban growth and Brasília needed more public spaces.
In view of this, Governor Elmo Serejo Farias created, between Asa Sul and Setor Sudoeste , a park that would come to be considered the largest urban park in South America . With the aim of offering a leisure service to the population and also mitigating the climatic impacts of the Cerrado, the urban planning project carried out by Lúcio Costa was implemented, with buildings by architects Oscar Niemeyer and Glauco Campelo, tiles by Athos Bulcão and landscaping by Burle Marx.
(Agência Brasília/Divulgação/CASACOR)
The oldest campus of the University of Brasília (UnB), designed by Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer, also carries a collection of historical elements of the capital of Brazil. Starting with the name, which pays homage to Darcy Ribeiro , anthropologist and Minister of Education under João Goulart , the president who authorized the creation of the University in 1961.
Although UnB was built after JK's Plano de Metas and during another government, the university's construction project was aligned with the principles of modernization propagated by the inauguration of Brasília. Darcy Ribeiro aspired to create an educational experience that would advance technological research and raise the level of academic production.
(Cedoc UnB/CASACOR)
With the Military Dictatorship in 1964 , the Darcy Ribeiro campus was invaded and surrounded several times by the military and the Center for Architectural and Urban Studies and Planning at UnB was deactivated.
During the redemocratization process, the campus was once again planned, with the Central Institute of Sciences of the University of Brasília (ICC), known as Minhocão , being used as a central element in the structuring of the urban design. Today, UnB is one of the main higher education institutions in Brazil.
(Joana França/Divulgação/CASACOR)
By establishing a new way of living in a city , the superblocks designed by Lúcio Costa are a good way to summarize the historical importance of Brasília . Superblock 308 Sul, designed to serve as a model for the others, was inaugurated in 1962.
Lúcio Costa designed the superblocks as a way to break with inequality through urban planning . His goal was for them to be occupied by the working class and thus put the housing of the lower classes on an equal footing with the palaces and monumental buildings present on the other axis of Brasília. This, however, did not happen.
The superblocks ended up being destined for the middle classes, while the poorest part of the population was expelled to the satellite cities.
(Joana França/Divulgação/CASACOR)
(Divulgação/CASACOR)
