CHURCH OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI BELO HORIZONTE, BRAZIL

Designed by Oscar Niemeyer; completed 1943
In 1941 the mayor of Belo Horizonte, Juscelino Kubitschek, commissioned the
architect Oscar Niemeyer to build a series of buildings around Pampulha lake. These
included a yacht club, a dance hall, a casino, and a chapel, the latter of which is known as
the Church of St. Francis of Assisi (1943). Under Kubitschek’s influence Belo Horizonte,
the capital of the state of Minas Gerais, aspired to compete with the two hitherto
hegemonic metropolises, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In 1938 the governor suggested
the need for a tourist hotel in the colonial city of Ouro Preto, a project that would be also
carried out by Niemeyer (1939). Kubitschek’s desire to introduce modern elements in a
city that still remained provincial and traditional motivated the urbanization of the lands
edging the artificial lake in Pampulha, situated fifteen kilometers from the city center,
and created for the recreation of Minas Gerais’s new industrial bourgeoisie.
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Niemeyer invited artists Alfredo Ceschiatti and Cándido Portinari and the landscape
architect Roberto Burle Marx to collaborate on the Pampulha projects, including the
Church of St. Francis of Assisi. In his designs Niemeyer abandoned the Cartesian system
of composition in favor of freely curving forms in space.
The small church is shaped by three basic elements: the bell tower linked to the light
access marquee, the nave covered by a freestanding vault, and the adjacent installations,
covered by three smaller reinforced-concrete domes. The blind facade of the chapel,
which faces the street, is embellished by a large mural by Cándido Portinari of
Portuguese blue-and-white glazed tiles (azulejos ) depicting scenes from the life of St. Francis of
Assisi. The nave is designed in two parts: the area for the faithful worshipers, accessed
through the horizontal slate of the choir, a low element that antecedes the surprise of the
vault’s parabolic expansion; and the altar space, lit from the ceiling’s apex that
establishes the difference in height between the two domes integrated in the central axis.
From the darkness of the nave, the miracle of light illuminates the wall of the altar that is
also covered with a painting by Portinari. From the exterior the chapel is apprehended
through the continuous fluidity of the domes and the transparent bell tower that appears
almost suspended in air by the light, curved, metallic supports.
Although these shapes were innovative for a religious building, Niemeyer was likely
inspired by several precursors, including the parabolic hangars of the Orly Airport (1916–
24, Eugéne Freyssinet) and the Orbetello Airport (1935–38, Pier Luigi Nervi), the curved
ramps of the penguin pool at the London Zoo (1933–34, Berthold Lubetkin), and the
Zementhalle in Zurich (1939, Robert Maillart). These lightweight shells foreshadowed
the possibilities of reinforced concrete in the hands of talented structural engineers such
as Felix Candela and Eladio Dieste in Latin America. Joaquim Cardozo, Niemeyer’s
engineer, participated in the creation of the church. The avantgardism of Niemeyer’s
structure was widely rejected among the local clergy and the Minas Gerais bourgeoisie
who did not accept such secular forms for a religious building; in fact, the church
remained abandoned and converted to a radio station until 1959, when it became
definitively a church.
The urbanization project of Belo Horizonte unfortunately did not prosper, and
Pampulha began to decline, culminating in the contamination of the lake. Today,
Niemeyer’s buildings have been restored, and the area has been recuperated as a space
for public leisure. Some European critics, in particular Bruno Zevi (1953) and Manfredo
Tafuri (1979), argued that the chapel’s freedom of design was overly formulist. The
Italian critic Gillo Dorfles (1984) identified a nascent neobaroque modernism (or baroque
rationalism) in Niemeyer’s work. The French critic Jean Petit (1995) affirmed
Niemeyer’s autonomy from the prevailing European rationalism. According to Le
Corbusier, an early mentor and collaborator, Niemeyer was able to marry the
emotionalism of the baroque with the industrial and austere materials of reinforced
concrete. Without question, Pampulha in the 1940s emerged as the forerunner of the
expressive freedom of English and American Brutalism that emerged at the end of the
Second World War.

BRAZIL

The 20th-century architecture of Brazil became widely famous for its originality and
formal freedom in contrast to more codified paradigms of modernism. Celebrated abroad
as a step ahead of functionalism and rationalism, Brazilian modernism acquired
international significance in the 1950s, and the effects of it can still be found in
contemporary architecture. However, to grasp the full scope of Brazilian 20th-century
architecture, it is necessary to understand the radical transformations in its economy and
society that led to an accelerated process of urbanization. From 17 million inhabitants in
1900, 70 percent of whom were living in rural areas, Brazil closed the century with
almost 170 million, with more than 60 percent living in urban areas.
Brazilians entered the 20th century under the influence of positivism and sanitary
engineering as two events of 1897 indicate: the planned city of Belo Horizonte was
inaugurated to replace the 18th-century Ouro Preto as the capital of the state of Minas
Gerais, and Canudos, a fast-growing spontaneous settlement guided by messianic leader
Antonio Conselheiro in Bahia, was destroyed by the Brazilian army. Both the plan of
Belo Horizonte by engineer Aarão Reis and the Canudos war campaign reveal positivist
views of sanitation and circulation in vogue at that time.
Following that direction, the 1900s would be marked in Rio by the urban reformations
of Pereira Passos, with avenues being opened and slums being displaced while civic
buildings in French neoclassical style took its place (for example, in Teatro Nacional,
1906). In 1927 another plan by the French urbanist Alfred Agache would be the structure
for Rio’s main transformations of the first half of the century. Meanwhile, São Paulo
experimented an exhilarating growth brought about by the coffee-based economy that
provided new developments based on garden city ideas for the emergent middle class.
Around 1905 Victor Dubugras was designing railroad stations in the Art Nouveau style,
initiating what would be São Paulo’s cosmopolitan modernity.
Later, in the second decade of the century, a debate would arise regarding issues of
local identity versus international images with the arrival of Art Deco on the one hand
and the development of neo-Colonial styles on the other. The Deco tradition was manifest
in many of Brazil’s landmarks, such as the Cristo Redentor statue over Rio, the City Hall
in Belo Horizonte, and multiple buildings and viaducts in São Paulo. On the other hand,
the neo-Colonial movement, led by José Mariano Filho, would battle against the
modernist avant-garde ideas during the whole of the 1920s and 1930s but would also be
fundamental to give Brazilian modernism its character by valuing the forms of 18thcentury
baroque.
Until the 1920s, modernism had an impact only on some isolated painters and writers
who were influential within architectural developments. The event that marks the starting
point of Brazilian avant-garde is the Semana de Arte Moderna, a week of exhibitions,
lectures, and poetry declamation organized in São Paulo in 1922. From this period, we
can highlight the works of Oswald de Andrade on texts such as Manifes to Antropófago and the young female
painters Anita Malfatti and Tarsila do Amaral. They attempted to resolve the apparently
Entries A–F 303
opposing forces of abstract internationalism and the representation of local identities.
After the polemical introduction at the Semana, Brazilian avant-garde artists gradually
turned to the issue of adapting the avant-garde to Brazilian reality and “Brazilianess.” As
early as 1925, articles appeared in São Paulo’s newspapers by Rino Levi and Gregory
Warchavchik, who were the first exponents of what contemporary historiography calls
“modern architecture in Brazil” (primarily derived from European traditions) to
differentiate it from “Brazilian modern architecture” (exemplified by Brazilian-derived
ideas and formal vocabularies). Rino Levi (Art Palacio Movie Theater, 1936) became an
exemplar of Brazilian modernism, whereas Warchavchik (House at Rua Itápolis, 1928)
would play an important role as Costa’s partner for a while and also as the first Latin
American delegate to the CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne).
In 1930, in what would be one of the key moments of Brazilian architecture, Lúcio
Costa was named director of ENBA (National School of Beaux-Arts). As soon as he was
named, Costa began a radical reformation of the art and architecture curriculum based on
the Bauhaus pedagogy and Le Corbusier’s ideas in architecture. The strong reaction
against the changes led to Costa’s replacement 11 months later, but the ideas that he
installed flourished with a generation of students at that time: Oscar Niemeyer, Roberto
Burle Marx, Affonso Raidy, Carlos Moreira, Milton Roberto, Luis Nunes, and Henrique
Mindlin, among others. Until 1930 the ENBA still adopted the 19th-century academic
approach to architectural teaching, with a strong emphasis on classical figurative
drawing. This was changed in the 1930 curricular reformation, and this early generation
of Brazilian modern architects took advantage of both the strong domain of classical
drawing and the new architectural freedom of avant-garde techniques. After leaving the
ENBA, Costa went to work for the Ministry of Education and Culture on the organization
of SPHAN, the Brazilian Office for Conservation of Historic Monuments.
With the task of cataloging, protecting, and publicizing Brazilian historic and artistic
heritage, the Serviço do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico (SPHAN) was created in 1937.
Costa’s acumen played a major role in the articulation of Brazilian modern architecture,
stitching together the past and the future into a very effective concept of architecture.
Standing in defense of the 18th-century baroque, not yet valued by modern critique and
diminished by the Beaux-Arts academia, Costa sought transitions and continuations
rather than ruptures and breaks; he thus conceived of modern architecture as a natural
continuation of the baroque style.
In 1936 Le Corbusier was invited as a supportive consultant for the team of architects
commissioned to design the new building for the Brazilian Ministry of Education and
Health (MES). The invitation of Le Corbusier served as a support for canceling the
previous competition, as the winning design was considered by the government to be
incompatible with the modern image that it was trying to establish. The MES building,
one of the first high-rises of the world following Le Corbusier’s five points, would
catalyze a whole generation of young architects and artists, with the murals by Candido
Portinari, sculptures by Bruno Giorgi, and gardens by Burle Marx, around the
architecture developed by Costa, Carlos Leão, Jorge Moreira, and mainly Oscar
Niemeyer, inspired by Le Corbusier.
The years before and during World War II would also witness the spread
of modernist architects all around the country and the battles between
modernists and traditionalists in Rio. In Recife, Luis Nunes would direct the municipal building office and collaborate with
structural Joaquim Cardoso (Water Tower, 1937) and Saturnino N.Brito (Anatomical
Laboratory, 1940), and Burle Marx was redesigning the city’s public gardens. In São
Paulo, Rino Levi designed the Sedis Sapientiae building (1942), and Alvaro Vital Brasil
designed the Esther Building (1937). However, Rio de Janeiro was still the country’s
capital, and there, in addition to the Roberto Brothers ABI (1936) and Santos Dumont
Airport (1944), Atílio Correa Lima designed the Seaplane station (1940), and Niemeyer
designed a nursery (Obra do Berço, 1937) and his own house (1939) at Lagoa.
Meanwhile, a vigorous debate around architecture and national identity would turn
into many battles fought through competitions and commissions. The federal government
maintained a twofold take on architecture all the way through the 1930s, alternating
commissions between modernists and traditionalists. In 1939 a commission was done for
a hotel in the city of Ouro Preto, home of the most important baroque buildings in Brazil,
with SPHAN responsible for the project. Niemeyer’s modernist scheme modified by
Costa’s advice (adding a ceramic roof like the rest of the city and wooden trellises instead
of steel bris es -soleil) was accepted and built. With the Grande Hotel de Ouro Preto (1942), a
modernist design in the heart of the main historical city of Minas Gerais, the modernist
group demonstrated the possibility of blending modernity with tradition.
The decade would end with the first international exposure of Brazilian modernism
with the design for the Brazilian Pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. The
combination of Le Corbusian volumes with sensual curves caught the attention of the
architectural media, and just four years later the Museum of Modern Art in New York
mounted the “Brazil Builds” exhibition. The accompanying catalogue by Philip Goodwin
became the first text on Brazilian modern architecture to be published in English.
Entries A–F 305
Goodwin’s marriage of modernity and Brazilian heritage was further advanced by Costa
and would be the conceptual basis for many of the most successful Brazilian buildings
after the 1940s.
In 1941 Niemeyer was commissioned by the city’s mayor, Jucelino Kubitschek (who
would be the president who built Brasilia 15 years later) to design a series of buildings
around Pampulha’s artificial lake, in Belo Horizonte. Niemeyer’s designs of Capela da
Pampulha, Casa do Baile, Casino, and late Clube became the model for Brazilian
architectural modernism for decades. The Capela was revolutionary for breaking with the
Le Corbusian paradigm, with its walls and ceiling that were not “free” (or flexible) but
inseparable. Ceramic tiles (pas tilhas ) cover its parabolic vaults, and a ceramic panel (azulejo) decorates the
rear wall. The Casino presents a free-form canopy supported by thin steel columns and
the continuous glass wall on the facade. Inside the cubic main volume, the ramp
dominates functionally, and the round concrete columns punctuate the rhythm of the
interior space. The impact of the Pampulha buildings was considerable, initially in Brazil
just after its completion in 1942 and then abroad. The international debate of the
following decade would embrace Brazilian architecture in its core, with Nikolaus Pevsner
labeling Pampulha as subversive work, Reyner Banham claiming it as the first national
style in modern architecture, and Gino Dorfles describing Niemeyer’s work as
neobaroque.
The architecture of the 1950s is still considered the golden years of Brazilian
modernism. Starting with Rino Levi designing the headquarters of the Brazilian Institute
of Architects (1949) in São Paulo and Affonso Raidy designing the Museum of Modern
Art (1952) in Rio, the 1950s would also witness innumerable fascinating buildings by
Sergio Bernardes (House for Lota M. Soares and Elizabeth Bishop, 1952), Francisco
Bolonha (Maternity Hospital, 1951, in Cataguases and Kindergarten, 1952, in Vitória),
Alvaro Vital Brasil (Banco da Lavoura, 1951, in Belo Horizonte), and Niemeyer
(Ibirapuera Pavilions, 1954), as well as the Burle Marx gardens. In a time of accelerating
industrialization and urbanization, the issue of housing was at the core of the 1950s
practice. The Pedregulho complex (1950) by Raidy, the Bristol apartments (1950) by
Costa, and the Kubitschek complex (1953) by Niemeyer in Belo Horizonte are the most
well known, but other, still little-known architects were laboring to improve housing
quality and quantity in government offices, such as Carmem Portinho at the PDF (Rio’s
office for public building). In the 1950s, a second generation of modernist architects
would emerge from the Rio-São Paulo axis including Acacio Gil Borsoi in Recife, Edgar
Graeff in Porto Alegre, and Eduardo Guimarães and Sylvio de Vasconcelos in Belo
Horizonte, effectively extending the achievements of modern architecture to new
frontiers. However, the most important group, formed around the late 1950s, might be the
later-called Escola Paulista (São Paulo School). The group, formed around João Batista
Villanova Artigas, would advocate for an open architecture in terms of content while
developing a unique aesthetic of exposed concrete, generous slabs, and rigorous
geometry. Among many extraordinary buildings are the School of Architecture (1967) at
the University of São Paulo and Morumbi Stadium (1969) by Artigas and the Brazilian
Pavilion (1970) at Osaka and the Junqueira House (1976) by Paulo Mendes da Rocha,
who would be of the major Brazilian architects of the late decades of the 20th century
with his designs for the Museu da Escultura (Sculpture Museum, 1986) and Pinacoteca
renovation (1995), both in São Paulo.
Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture 306
The golden years of Brazilian modernism led to the construction of Brasilia (1955–
60). During the presidential term of Juscelino Kubitschek, the idea of building a new
capital in the heartland was put forward, and the planning competition was won by Costa
in 1956, with major buildings by Niemeyer (Congress, Cathedral, Foreign Ministry, and
Presidential residence [Alvorada] and offices [Planalto], among many others). The new
capital was opened on 21 April 1960. The international reaction to Brasilia is well known
and ranges from the Alvorada columns being copied worldwide to a severe social
criticism of the city’s flaws. However, its construction would change fundamentally the
panorama of Brazilian modernism after that. In the geopolitical realm, the inland capital
induced a vector of penetration toward the backlands. On the symbolic level, the
buildings by Niemeyer (especially the Congress with its twin towers and inverted
spherical capes) would become the icons of Brazilian institutions. In terms of
architecture, Brasilia marks the climax of the modernist paradigm and the beginning of its
critique and revision that followed.
While Brasilia was under construction, Lina Bò Bardi (an Italian immigrant living in
Brazil since 1947) was completing her Museum of Modern Art (1957) in São Paulo. In
the early 1960s, Bardi worked in Salvador, where she renovated 17th-century buildings
and worked with popular art exhibitions in preparation for the construction of the
Museum of Art at that city. However, the military coup of 1964 aborted her plans and
those of many other architects. Without ever actually leaving the architectural scene, she
came back with the SESC-Pompéia (1987), a sports/cultural facility in São Paulo.
The 1970s, known in Brazil as the “economic miracle” years, experienced huge
housing projects financed by the National Housing Bank in which the control was with
the construction firms, marginalizing most architects to a secondary role. The military
regime was also responsible for the exile of exponent architects, such as Niemeyer,
Artigas, and Vasconcellos, repressing architecture schools that were a focus of cultural
and political discussion on the 1960s. Although the construction industry was busy with
megahousing projects, the more talented architects were revising the modernist dogmas
and receiving the early Postmodern ideas from Europe and the United States. The critique
of modernism carried out in Brazil during the 1970s is also associated with a demand for
regional solutions, a reaction against the hegemony of the Rio and São Paulo Schools.
Deep in the Amazon, Severiano Porto was experimenting with climatic and formal
solutions (Architect’s house, 1971; Silves hostel, 1979; Balbina’s environmental center,
1984), whereas in Salvador, João Filgueiras Lima (State Administrative Center, 1973,
and several Sarah hospitals since the 1970s) and Francisco Assis Reis (Chesf building,
1978) were advancing the ideas of late modernism. Also under a late-modernist approach
were the buildings by Carlos E.Comas, Carlos Fayet in Porto Alegre (Centre de
Abastecimento, 1972), Luis Paulo Conde in Rio (Ewerton house, 1968, and UERJ [State
University] Complex, 1968), and Humberto Serpa and Marcus Vinicius Meyer in Belo
Horizonte (BDMG building, 1969).
Beyond the late modernism of the 1970s, a generation of young architects in Belo
Horizonte took Postmodernist ideas further away. Gravitating around Pampulha magazine (a direct
reference to Niemeyer’s buildings at that same city), founded in 1979, the “Mineiros”
catalyzed the Postmodern/regionalist tendencies of the 1980s in Brazil. The Touristic
Support Center building (1982; called Rainha da Sucata) by Eolo Maia and Sylvio
Podestá in Belo Horizonte epitomizes their movement with its bright colors, rusted metal
Entries A–F 307
surfaces, and plenty of formal quotations from the surroundings. The 1980s would then
have pluralism and regionalism as its axis, with an intense debate between proponents of
a continuation of late-modernist ideas and the defendants of Postmodern rupture. In 1991,
in a competition for the Brazilian Pavilion at the Sevilla Expo, this debate would reach its
peak. The first prize (never built) was awarded for a group of Paulistas (Angelo Bucci
and others); the runners-up were Eolo Maia and Joel Campolina, and a special award
(Paulo Leander) was given to the Mineiros. In São Paulo, now the financial center of the
new Brazilian economy, Rui Othake designed several high-rise apartment buildings while
Gian F.Gasperini and Roberto Aflalo changed the face of Paulista Avenue with their
design for the Citibank building.
The last decade of the 20th century also saw the rise of a very talented generation of
architects in Recife galvanized by Fernando Montezuma (Camelódromo [street vendors
pavilion], 1994) and in Porto Alegre with Edson Mahfuz. In Rio de Janeiro, an extensive
project of urban design, public facilities, and renovation was put forward by Luis Paulo
Conde, first as the Municipal Secretary of Urbanism (1992–96) and then as mayor (1996–
2000). Rio Cidade (urban design of downtown areas) and Favela-bairro (improvements
and infrastructure at the shanty hills) are among the successful cases of good architecture
serving the public at the end of the century.
As the 20th century came to an end, Brazil showed a dynamic internal architectural
scene with almost 100 schools in 20 states, despite not participating much on the
international scene. That started to change in the late 1990s with the renewed interest in
Brazilian modernism being exhibited and discussed worldwide, and this should project its
20th-century accomplishments well into the third millennium.

BRASILIA, BRAZIL

The construction of Brasilia, the much-maligned capital city of Brazil, represents an
important and cathartic moment in the history of modern architecture and the
International Style. As well as becoming a national emblem for the geographically
disparate country, Brasilia has also become, in more recent times, a symbol for some of
the perceived shortcomings of the modernist movement. Bringing together many of the
European ideals that had accompanied the Utopian urban plans of the postwar years,
Brasilia necessitated the deployment of monumental architecture on a scale almost
unprecedented in the 20th century. The emphasis on establishing a new cultural identity
for the South American power was interwoven with the global architectural language of
Oscar Niemeyer and the Le Corbusian-inspired planning of his mentor Lúcio Costa. The
optimistic proposal was to be realized within an incredibly short construction period and
in the wake of enormous political pressure.
The decision to relocate the Brazilian capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia in the
isolated interior of the country was set against a backdrop of domestic instability and
individual ambition. In 1955 Juscelino Kubitschek had been elected president of Brazil
by a slender margin and without a party majority. The decision to build a new capital was
motivated by the need to consolidate the support of a marginal electorate as well as the
need to project Brazil into the technological age. The geography of the country had
dictated much of the political and economic structure of Brazil, concentrating most of the
population and industry along the scenic Atlantic coast that housed most of Brazil’s
major cities. An inland capital was intended to not only symbolically relocate the seat of
national power but also shift the demographic and economic focus away from the
European colonial powers and toward the vast domestic hinterland. This was part of
Kubitschek’s nationwide industrialization process that sought to rapidly develop rural and
remote regions of Brazil and bring egalitarian prosperity to the emerging country. The
new capital was to be a symbol for this modernization, establishing a new national
identity and offering the opportunity to reform the convoluted bureaucracy of the old
capital in Rio.
The fact that Kubitschek was limited to a single five-year term in office necessitated
that the epic project be realized within this period. The vast scale and enormous technical
impediments to the project meant that the preliminary design of the city had to be
undertaken with speed and efficiency. Brazil’s most internationally renowned architect,
Oscar Niemeyer, who had previously worked with Kubitschek, was appointed to direct
the works and given complete control over the design and construction process. On 16
March 1957, Niemeyer announced a national competition for the master plan of the new
capital and, as an important member of the jury, was instrumental in awarding the
Entries A–F 299
winning scheme to Lúcio Costa (his teacher and former employer). Niemeyer was to be
the architect for the buildings extending a long period of successful collaboration
between the two men. Construction was begun in 1957 and the new capital city was
inaugurated on schedule on 21 April 1960.
Costa’s plan for the city was hinged around the intersection of two monumental axes,
marking Brasilia as the symbolic and geographic center of Brazil. The characteristic
arrangement houses the three branches of government—legislative, executive, and
judicial—along a lineal central axis that Costa calls the Plaza of the Three Powers. From
here, two wings radiate in either direction, housing the ministry buildings and embassies,
giving the plan a diagrammatic relationship to a modern aircraft. This cruciform plan was
an important symbol aligning the new capital not only with more traditional Catholic
typology but also with the pervasive imagery of modernism, progress, and flight. Unlike
the congested streets of Brazil’s coastal metropolises, the new capital was serviced by
broad, expansive highways that celebrated automation and the technological convenience
of the modern age.
Costa had followed Le Corbusier’s Ville Radieuse (Radial City) (partially,
implemented at Chandigarh) by isolating the political and administrative centers of the
new capital from the housing and recreational facilities, which radiated out from the
circumference of this new monolithic center. However, it was the imposing architectural
composition of Niemeyer that most clearly reiterated the formal principles of Le
Corbusian modernism. The language of Niemeyer’s grandiose structures betrayed a
profound allegiance to Le Corbusier and, in particular, his work at Chandigarh.
Niemeyer, in reverence to the Punjab capital, implemented a simple but elegant
geometric language to articulate the colossal monuments of Costa’s plan. The austerity of
this new architectural entourage, like many modernist projects, attempted a synthesis
between an idealistic social vision and pure geometric form. The attenuated scale of the
buildings deployed in the capital worked with the master plan to facilitate a
characteristically modernist reunification between architecture, nature, and the individual.
The Plaza of the Three Powers represents the political and architectural epicenter for
the new capital. The elegant Palácio de Planalto (Highland Palace) became the new seat
for Brazil’s government, housed within a single structure running parallel to the plaza.
Giant, curved concrete pilasters articulate the exterior of the building, allowing the roof
and floors to float gracefully above the ground. Opposite the palace and separated by a
broad public space is the Supreme Court, which employs a similar language of forms to
the palace with the strong rhythm of sculptural pilasters that dominates the elevation. In
the vast space between these two buildings, along the center of the axis, is the Museum of
the City of Brasilia, characterized by a dramatic horizontal cantilever that memorializes
the construction of the city. A large bust of Kubitschek faces back toward the palace,
unmistakably commemorating the president responsible.
The central axis is also the site of several important cultural buildings including the
National Theatre and the sculptural Metropolitan Chapel. The chapel, in particular, is an
important structure subtly demarcating the roles of politics and religion within Costa’s
plan for a Utopian urbanism. The poetic conical structure is formed by 16 bent concrete
pilasters opening out at the top to form a crown. Between the concrete supports is a
mosaic of colored glass (redesigned in 1970 by Marianne Peretti) transmitting a powerful
spirituality to the internal space. This is heightened by the entry procedure, which takes
Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture 300
visitors underground before depositing them dramatically in the center of the internalized
crystal chamber. The National Theatre also makes use of a pyramidal form elegantly
housing two theaters within a terraced subterranean crater.
The end of the Plaza of the Three Powers is punctuated by the third major
administrative building—the authoritative residence of the Congress. This colossal
structure dominates the surrounding landscape with two slender concrete towers on a
broad horizontal plinth. The two bodies of congress (the House of Deputies and the
Senate) are expressed by two enormous parabolic dishes, one inverted, that are located on
either side of the two towers above the podium. The circular form of the dishes allows a
seductive interior layout for the two legislative bodies, distributing, rather than focusing,
power.
The playful composition of the Congress, set against the expansive public spaces of
the plaza, marks the hierarchical apex of the axis forming a hinging point in the whole
design. Costa’s plan is reminiscent of the principles of the colonial baroque architecture
(evident in many coastal cities of Brazil) that established primary and secondary
functional corridors. Architecturally, Neimeyer established this hierarchy through the use
of form and finish to distinguish between the sacred Plaza of the Three Powers and the
secondary administrative axis that bisects it. The various ministries that make up the two
curved wings of the plan are accommodated within undistinguished Cartesian office
blocks, less elaborate than the parliamentary buildings in both form and execution.
Recent writers have applied a more critical eye to Brasilia and observed that
Niemeyer’s structures unwillingly enforced a cultural hierarchy by allocating expensive
finishes and detailing to the institutional structures and neglecting the sites of work and
leisure. Unlike the rough Brutalism of Chandigarh, which was uncompromising in its
rough-cast concrete finish, many of the significant buildings of Brasilia are finished with
luxurious yet cosmetic surfaces like marble, metal, and mirrored panels. The most
pronounced contrast with this, and the subject of many contemporary critiques of the city,
is embodied in the sprawling housing sectors that surround the capital and quickly
became the scene of crime, poverty, and disease. As a result, Brasilia became a city of
transit for politicians who generally resided in Rio de Janeiro and visited the capital only
intermittently. The residents of the city, many of whom had been instrumental in its
construction, were relegated to ramshackle favelas enveloping the periphery of the city.
This divisive relationship between the center and the periphery seemingly enforces a rigid
social stratification between the monumental majesty of the governing elite and the
working-class squatters, betraying the egalitarian rhetoric that initially inspired the
construction of the new capital.
Nowhere is the decadent luxury of Brasilia more evident than in the lavish presidential
palace, which exists on an isolated site apart from the other institutional buildings.
Known as the Alvarado Palace, the expansive residence was the first building completed
at Brasilia and remains one of the most recognizable and influential of Niemeyer’s
buildings. It quickly became the architectural symbol of the new capital. The palace
employs a similar language to the Federal Government and Supreme Court monuments,
dominated by an inverted arched colonnade that sinks gracefully into a pristine reflecting
pond. The palace incorporates a private chapel, signaling the seamless influence of the
Catholic Church on the affairs of state. Located at the side of the imposing palace, the
plan of the chapel is based on a sweeping spiral that, like the plastic forms of Le
Entries A–F 301
Corbusier’s Ronchamp, leads the visitor from the sculptural whitewashed exterior toward
a discreet and contemplative altar. The geographic and spiritual isolation of the residence,
as well as its imposing scale, further elaborates the social stratification intrinsic to the
program of the new Capital.
Only four years after the city’s completion, Brazil was the victim of a military coup
that instantaneously reversed the democratic and egalitarian principles that had initially
inspired the construction of the new capital. The next 20 years within the country were
characterized by a turbulent political landscape that ultimately led Niemeyer to live in
exile in Europe for several years. Despite this, Niemeyer, although occasionally
distancing himself from the design of the city, continued his association with the capital
under the new regime, finishing the construction of several important buildings, including
the Ministry of Justice. Significantly, in 1980 Niemeyer proposed a monument to
commemorate the death of Juscelino Kubitschek, who had been the political and spiritual
force behind the new city. The monument, whose form is reminiscent of the hammer and
sickle, houses the tomb of the former president in a serene underground chamber.
However, possibly the most elegant and graceful of all of the buildings at Brasilia is
the Pantheon of Liberty and Democracy, completed in 1987 in memory of Tancredo
Neves. The poetic reinforced concrete sails of the pyre now enclose the southern end of
the Plaza of the Three Powers, juxtaposed against the robust silhouette of the congress
building at the northern end. The expressive structure subtly completes the urban
composition, complementing the formal austerity of the earlier monumental structures
with contemporary images of peace and harmony.
Despite failing in its intention to create a more egalitarian society through pure
architectural expression, the city of Brasilia remains a powerful urban gesture, layered
with symbolism of form and meaning deployed across a rich architectural tapestry. The
dominant scenography, rigid geometric planning, and uniform aesthetic language
effectively unite the diverse political, social, and artistic forces of the turbulent South
American nation, forming a capital that is as inspirational as it is imperfect. The elegant
poetry, epic scale, and often-naïfe socialism embodied in the monumental forms provide
an important commentary on both the best and worst aspects of the Modern movement.