Abstract
Lúcio Costa proposes an urbs and a civitas in his winning entry for the Brasilia competition (1957). The new seat of citizenship was to celebrate the March to the West dreamt by Brazilian Independence’s Patriarch José Bonifácio (1823) - who named the new capital - and taken up by president Juscelino Kubitschek (1955) - who promised fifty years of progress in five. Brasilia was to be a machine for remembering past, present and future hopes. Therefore, it had to be a memorable object itself, composed of memorable elements; differentiation from context counted in all levels. Like Costa, Oscar Niemeyer knew that common monumental features included volumetric simplicity, unusual size, scale or shape and extraordinary richness, as shown by his Palácio da Alvorada, the presidential residence (1956).
Keywords
Modern Movement,
Modern architecture,
Brasilia modern architecture,
World Heritage,
Modern urban design,
Lúcio Costa,
Brasilia Plan,
Oscar Niemeyer,
Alvorada Palace,
Modern monumentality.
Issue 43
Year 2010
Pages 40-43
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.52200/43.A.DM9EB04A