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Brasilia: The Case Against Modernism: A City Divorced From People
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14182 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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7 / 1988 |
2,196 Words |
| Author
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Kenneth Powell
Kenneth Powell is an architecture writer for the London Daily
Telegraph. |
The city of Brasilia is, without question, one of the most heroic architectural achievements of the twentieth century. As a capital city, it is, however, a spectacular failure: a city without a soul, cut off and isolated from the life of the nation, a sepulchral collection of architectural monuments divorced from the social underpinning that is at the root of all good and humane architecture and planning. It is a prime exhibit in the case against Modernism.
Not every capital can be a London or a Paris--places deeply rooted in the history and consciousness of an ancient nation-state. Washington, Canberra, and New Delhi share common qualities not to be found in New York, Sydney, and Bombay. But they are viable and inhabitable places in a way Brasilia is not.
A Melting Pot
The origins of Brasilia are to be sought in two eras. Even when Brazil was emerging as an independent nation out of the Portuguese empire in the last century, it was ruled: "There shall be erected a central town, in the interior of Brazil, as the seat of the court or the regency.... From that central court roads to the different provinces and seaports shall be immediately opened." It was almost a century and a half before that dream was to be realized. A vast land, with great reserves of raw materials, Brazil became a melting pot of races and cultures. But its population clung to the coast, leaving the hugeness of the interior to the indigenous population. In this enormous hinterland, the population averaged one person to the square kilometer. It was here that the new capital was to rise.
The new capital obsessed Brazilians: It was written as a matter of faith into every version of the national constitution. In 1892, a government commission was appointed to draw up a short list of possible sites--but nothing came of it. The impetus to build Brasilia came from the Modern Movement.
Modern architecture flourished in Brazil from an early date, allying itself with the national movement for expansion and modernization. As early as 1925, a Russian-born architect, Gregory Warchavchik, published his Manifesto of functionalism in São Paulo. Four years later, Le Corbusier visited Brazil for the first time. His influence there was to be great and lasting. He met Lucio Costa, soon to become director of the National School of Fine Arts (which included the country's only school of architecture). Returning in 1936, he met the 29-year-old Oscar Niemeyer, a
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