THE HISTORY OF BRASILIA

THE PILOT PLAN AS PRESENTED BY LUCIO COSTA IN 1957

Having made these preliminary remarks, let us now consider how the present
solution was born, took shape and resolved itself:

1 - Basically, it was born of the primary gesture of one who marks or takes
possession of a place: two axes crossing at right-angles; the very sign of the Cross
(Fig. 1).

2 - It was then sought to adapt this sign to the local topography, the natural
drainage of the area, to the best possible orientation; one of the axes was curved
in order to make it fit into the equilateral triangle which limits the urbanized area
(Fig. 2).

3 - To apply to the technique of town planning the free principles highway

engineering, including the elimination of intersections, the curved axis, which
corresponds to the natural ways of access, was made into a through radial artery,
with fast central lanes and side lanes for local traffic. Along this axis, the bulk of
the residential districts have been placed (Fig. 3).

4 - As a consequence of this residential concentration, the civic and administrative

centers, the cultural, entertainment and sporting centers, the municipal
administration facilities, the barracks, the storage and supply zones, the sites for
small local industries, and the railway station, naturally fell into place along the
transverse axis, which thus became the monumental axis of the system. Alongside
the intersection of the axes, but appertaining functionally and in terms of
urbanistic composition to the monumental axis, the banking and commercial
districts have been placed, as well as the offices for private business and the
liberal professions, and the ample areas set aside for retail trade.
 5 - The intersection of the monument and the highway-residential axes, the
former being on a lower level, called for the creation of a broad platform where
only parking and local traffic would be permitted, and which logically suggested
the location of the entertainment center for the city, with the cinemas, theatres,
restaurants, etc. (Fig. 5).

6 - Through traffic to other sectors passes along the lower ground level under the
platform, in one way lanes, the platform being closed at its ends but open on the
two broader sides; most of this covered area is used for parking, and the inter-
urban bus station has been placed there and is accessible to passengers from the
upper level of the platform (Fig. 6). When the transversal axis reaches the
platform its central lanes go underground, beneath the lower ground level, at
which local traffic continues to circulate and which slopes gently down until it
levels with the esplanade in the ministry district.

7 - Thus, and with the introduction of three separate clover-shaped turn-offs on

each arm of the highway axis, and as many lower level crossings, automobiles and
buses circulate both in the central and the residential districts without any
intersections whatsoever. For heavy vehicular traffic a secondary independent
road system with point crossings was established, but without crossing or
interfering in any way with the main system, except above the sports district. This
secondary system has access to the buildings of the commercial district at
basement level, goes around the civic center on the lower plane, and is reached
through galleries at ground level (Fig. 7).

8 - With the general network for automotive traffic thus established, independent
paths for local pedestrian traffic were created both in the central and the
residential districts, ensuring free circulation (Fig. 8). This separation of
automotive and pedestrian traffic was not, however, carried to systematic and
unnatural extremes, for it must be remembered that nowadays, the automobile is
no longer man's irreconcilable enemy: it has been domesticated and is now, so to
speak, one of the family. It only becomes "dehumanized" and reacquires its
menacing and hostile aspect to pedestrians when incorporated in the anonymous
mass of traffic. A certain degree of separation is therefore necessary, but under
certain circumstances and for mutual convenience coexistence is at times
indispensable.

9 - Let us now see how the various districts of the city are integrated and
articulated within this framework of orderly circulation.

The most outstanding buildings are those which will house the fundamental
powers, and because these are three in number, and autonomous, the equilateral
triangle seemed the elementary form most appropriate to enclose them; then
too, this solution is linked with the architecture of remote antiquity. A triangular
terraced embankment was therefore created. It will be supported on retaining
walls of rough stone, rising above the surrounding countryside. It is approached
from the freeway leading to the residence and the airport (Fig. 9). One of the
buildings was placed at each angle of this plaza - Plaza of the Three Powers as it
might well be called - with Government House and the Supreme Court occupying
the base of the triangle and Congress at the apex. The latter faces a broad
esplanade set out on a second terrace, rectangular in shape and on a higher level
in accordance with the local topography. The application of this ancient oriental
terrace technique, in modern terms, ensures the cohesion of the project as a
whole and lends it unexpected monumental strength (Fig. 9). Along this
esplanade - a Mail, as the English call it - broad sweeping lawns to be used by
pedestrians, and parades - the various ministries and autonomous agencies were
placed (Fig. 10). Suitably fitted to their frame, the ministries of Foreign Affairs and
Justice occupy the lower corners near the House of Congress; the military
ministries occupy an independent square, and the others are located in sequence,
each having a private parking area. The last in the line is the Ministry of
Education, so that it stands adjacent to the cultural area for which a park solution
has been used, the better to frame the museums, library, planetarium, academies
and institutes etc. This sector in turn borders the broad area reserved for
University City with its General Hospital, and where it is also planned to set up the
Observatory. The Cathedral too has been given a location on the esplanade but
has a plaza of its own disposed laterally not so much for reasons of protocol, since
the Church is separate from the State, but more for questions of human scale and
the intention of enhancing the monument, and finally, for reasons of
architectonics: the perspective of the esplanade as a whole must run unimpeded
beyond the intersection of the two main axes.

10 - On this platform where, as previously pointed out, only local traffic is

permitted, we find the entertainment center: an appropriate mixture of Piccadilly
Circus, Times Square and the Champs Elysées. The side of the platform facing the
cultural district and the ministerial esplanade beyond it has no buildings, with the
exception of a possible tea house and the Opera, and these can be reached both
from the entertainment center itself and from the neighbouring cultural district,
which is on a lower level. On the front face of the platform the cinemas and
theatres have been concentrated, the pattern chosen being low and uniform so
that they form a single, harmonious and continuous architectonic whole; they
have a gallery, broad pavements, terraces and cafes, and the full height of the
respective façades can serve for the installation of illuminated signs and
advertisements (Fig. 11). The various theatres and cinemas will be connected with
each other by lanes in the traditional manner of "Rua do 0uvidor", by Venetian
alleys or covered galleries (arcades), and will be articulated to small patios
containing bars and cafes, with "loggias" overlooking the park -all of which will
contribute towards an expansive and gregarious atmosphere (Fig. 11). The ground
level at the center of this group of theatres and cinemas is left open throughout,
except for the places of access to the upper floors, in order to maintain a
continuity of perspective, and it is planned to have those upper floors glassed in
on two sides, so that the restaurants, clubs, tea-rooms, etc., may have a good
view. On one side they will look out over the lower-level esplanade, and on the
other over the slopes of the park along the extension of the monumental axis,
where the commercial and tourist hotels are located, and, beyond them, to the
tower of the radio and television stations, which has been integrated as a plastic
element in the general composition (Figs. 9, 11 and 12). Set sideways in the
central part of the platform is the entrance hall of the bus station with ticket
booths, bars, restaurants, etc., it being a low structure connected by escalators to
the lower level embarkation hall which is separated by glass walls from the buses
themselves. The one-way traffic system causes outgoing buses to make a
clockwise or counter-clockwise turn around the outside of the area covered by
the platform, affording the passengers a last view of the city's monumental axis
before entering the residential-highway axis - a psychologically desirable
opportunity for a farewell. On this great platform, chiefly intended for parked
vehicles as on the ground floor, space has also been allowed for two ample
pedestrian plazas, one facing the Opera and the other, symmetrically laid out, set
before a low pavillion facing the gardens of the cultural district and reserved for a
restaurant, bar and tea-room. In these plazas the one-way traffic lanes rise
slightly a large extension leaving pedestrian crossings in either direction
unimpeded, and giving free and direct access both to the shopping centers and to
the banking and office district (Fig. 8).

11 - Placed laterally to this central entertainment district, and articulated to it,

there are two great nucleii reserved exclusively as shopping centers, and two
other areas, one reserved for the banking and commercial enterprises and the
other as office space for the liberal arts professions, agencies, representatives,
etc.; in the former the Bank of Brazil, and in the later the Central Post Office and
Telegraph building. These areas and districts can be reached by car directly from
the various traffic lanes, and by pedestrians along paths free from traffic crossings
(Fig. 8); they have car-ports for two-level parking and service entrances in the
basements - which correspond to the lower level of the central platform. It is
planned that the banking and office districts should each contain three high-rise
blocks and four lower ones, all interconnected by a vast street-level wing,
providing sheltered walkways from one building to another and giving ample
space for the installation of bank and company agencies, cafes, restaurants, etc.
For each of the shopping centers an ordered sequence of long, low blocks plus
one taller block is proposed, the latter equal to the high-rise buildings in the
banking district, all of which connected by a spacious ground level unit with
ground-floor, first floor and gallery shops. Two raised arms of the traffic lanes are
also used here to provide free pedestrian circulation.
12 - The sports district, including a very large area reserved exclusively for
parking, has been located between the Municipal plaza and the radio transmitter
tower, which is envisaged as a triangular structure standing on a monumental
base of unfaced concrete and having, above the floor level of the studios and
other installations, a metal superstructure with an observation tower half way up
(Fig. 12). On one side is the stadium with its dependencies, and beyond it the
Botanical Gardens; on the other is the race course with its stands and riding club,
and the Zoological

Gardens beyond. These two vast green spaces, symmetrically laid out in relation
to the City's monumental axis, will serve as the new city's "lungs" (Fig. 4).

13 - In the Municipal plaza were sited the Town Hall, Police Headquarters, the Fire
Brigade and the Public Welfare Building; a prison and an asylum are also part of
this district, though set at some distance from the urbanized core.

14 - Beyond the municipal sector space was set aside for the garages of the city's
public transport system, beyond them again on both sides lie the military
barracks, and a broad transversal strip reserved for small local industries
completes the sector. This industrial area has its own autonomous residential
section, and is connected with the railway station and with a branch of the heavy
vehicular highway.

15 - Having run the length of city's monumental axis, it can be seen that the
fluency and unity of the layout (Fig. 9) from the Government Plaza at one end to
the Municipal plaza at the other does not preclude variety, and that each sector
forms what we might call an autonomous plastic unit within the whole. This
autonomy creates spaciousness on a noble scale, and permits the appreciation of
each unit's individual qualities without adversely affecting their harmonious
integration in the urban whole.
16 - The solution envisaged for the residential problem calls for a continuous
sequence of large blocks set in double or single line along both sides of the
residential highway axis, each surrounded by bands of greenery planted with
trees. In each block one particular type of tree would predominate, the ground
would be carpeted with grass and, on the inner approaches, an additional curtain
of bushes and plants would grow, the better to screen the contents of the blocks
and make them appear on a second plane as though merged into the scenery,
whatever the observer's vantage point (Fig. 13). This layout has the double
advantage of guaranteeing orderly urbanization even where the density, type,
pattern or architectonic quality of the buildings varies, and of giving the
inhabitants tree-lined strips in which to walk or take leisure, other than the open
spaces foreseen within the blocks themselves.

Within these "superblocks" the residential buildings could be arranged in many

and varying manners, always provided that two general principles are observed:
uniform height regulations, possibly six stories raised on pillars, and separation of
motor and pedestrian traffic, particularly on the approaches to the elementary
school and public facilities existing in each block (Fig. 8).

On the far side of the blocks runs the service street for heavy vehicles, and a strip
along the other side of that highway is reserved for the installation of garages,
repair shops, wholesale warehouses, etc. Beyond these utilities another strip of
land is set aside, equivalent to a third row of squares, for flower and vegetable
gardens and orchards. The churches, secondary schools, cinemas and retail stores
have been placed on broad strips which join the service and residential axis
highways at intervals, and are served alternately by one or the other. The layout
of these buildings in each case is according to their type or nature (Fig. 13).

The market, butchers, grocers, greengrocers, hardware stores, etc., are located in
the sections of the strip nearest to the service lanes; the barbers, hairdressers,
dress-makers, cake shops, etc., are in the section nearest the traffic lane used by
cars and buses; here, too, are the service and gas stations. The shops are set in
ranks, with display windows and covered walks facing the pedestrian approaches
and the wooded belts surrounding the blocks, while parking is foreseen on the
opposite side of the shops, adjacent to the traffic lane. Transverse lanes permit
access from one approach to the other, and the shops are thus broken up into
pairs while retaining their overall relationship as one single unit (Fig. 14).

The local Church has been placed where four blocks meet, and behind it are the
secondary schools, while the cinema has been placed on the section of the service
strip facing the highway to make it easily accessible from other districts; the large
free space between the shops on the one hand and the cinema on the other is
reserved for a youth club, with playing fields and play-grounds.

17 - Social gradations can easily be regulated by giving a higher value to certain

blocks, such for example as the single blocks bordering on the embassy district.
This district lies on both sides of the residential highway parallel to the city's main
axis, and has an independent avenue for access, while it shares the heavy vehicles
traffic lanes with the residential blocks. It is intended to build only on one side of
this private avenue leading to the embassies and legations - leaving the other free
for an unimpeded view of the landscape - with the one exception of the leading
hotel, which will be located in that district at a point near the center of the city.
Along the residential highway axis, the blocks closer to the highway will naturally
be valued more highly than the inner blocks, which will permit gradations
inherent to the economic system. Nevertheless, the grouping of the superblocks
in sets of four will favor a certain degree of social co-existence, avoiding undue
and undesirable class distinctions. Furthermore, differences in standards between
one block and another will be neutralized by the urbanization plan proposed, and
will be of such a nature as not to affect the comforts to which all are entitled.
Such differences will be the result of a greater or lesser density, of more or less
space allocated to each individual and each family, and of the choice of building
materials and quality of the finishing. In this connection it is very important to
avoid the mushrooming of hovels either in the urban or the rural areas; it is up to
the Urbanizing Company, within the proposed plan, to provide decent and
economic accommodation for the entire population.
18 - Isolated residential districts have also been planned, surrounded by trees and
open countryside, to be sold in lots for single family homes. It is suggested that
the layout here be of saw-toothed lots, so that the houses built on the upper lots
stand out in the landscape well separated from each other; nor will this layout
impede independent service access to all the lots (Fig. 15). Also foreseen is the
eventual construction of isolated houses with high architectural standard -
regardless of their size - but in such cases it will be required to space the houses
at one kilometer from each other at least, to accentuate the exceptional nature of
such concessions.

19 - By placing the cemeteries at the ends of the residential highway axis, funeral
processions will not need to cross the urban center. These cemeteries will be
landscaped with lawns and suitable trees, the tomb5 to be smooth and the
headstones simple - in the English tradition - the whole to be completely
unostentatious.

20 - Using the lakefront as a site for residential districts was avoided in order to
preserve its beauty intact, landscaping it with woods and fields in a natural and
rustic manner, so that the urban population can enjoy its simple pleasures. Only
athletic clubs, restaurants, places of entertainment, beach resorts and fishing
groups may be built on the shoreline water's edge. The Golf Club was placed at
the eastern end, next to the Presidential Residence and the hotel (both under
construction at present), and the Yacht Club on a nearby cove, separated from the
Golf Club by dense woods reaching right to the edge of the dam, which at this
point is bordered by a drive. This drive circles the lake but occasionally turns from
its banks to wander through the fields which, eventually, will be gracefully laid out
with plants and trees. It is connected to the residential highway and also to the
independent highway which connects the airport and the civic center and will be
used by distinguished visitors to the city; the corresponding departures can well
be made by the residential highway itself, which displays the city to advantage. It
is further proposed that the definite location of the airport be between the center
of the city and the dam, so that incoming passengers will not have either to cross
or go around it.
21 - As to the numbering of the houses, the point of reference should be the
monumental axis, dividing the city into Northern and Southern halves. The
superblocks would be known by numbers, the residential buildings by letters, and
finally the apartments would be designated in the usual way, so that an address
would read, for example, N-S3-L, apt. 201. The lettering of the buildings should be
in relation to the entrance of the superblock, and run from left to right in the
usual manner.

22 - There remains the problem of how to dispose of the land and make it
accessible to private capital. I do not believe that the blocks should be sold in lots,
and suggest that instead of selling off lots of land, the units should be sold in
quotas, their value to be dependent upon the sector in which they are found and
the standard building pattern for that site, in order not to confuse present
planning or possible future remodeling of the squares internal layouts. I also
believe that such planning should, by preference, precede sale of the land quotas,
but on the other hand there is nothing to prevent purchasers of a substantial
number of quotas in a square from submitting their own urbanization plan for it
to the Company's approval; the Company itself, in addition to facilitating the
purchase of quotas by corporations, could act to a large extent in the capacity of a
corporate firm. The price of the quotas will of course vary according to demand,
but should include, as I see it, a fixed sum to cover the expenses of the project.
This will facilitate either the contracting of specific architects or the opening of
competitions for the planning and construction of squares not handled by the
Company's own Architectural Division. Finally, I suggest that approval of such
projects should be in two stages: first the drafts and then the final versions, in
order to permit preliminary selection and quality control of the constructions.

The same applies to the retail shopping center and the banking and liberal
professions' -office districts, which should be planned prior to sale so that when
divided into quotas they will fall into effective sub-sectors and autonomous units
without harming the architectural integrity of the whole; these units could then
be placed on the real estate market, and the construction of the buildings
themselves, or part of the onus, could be financed by the interested parties or the
Company; alternatively, financing could be arranged by agreement between both.
23 - To sum up, the solution presented is easy to understand, for it is
characterized by the simplicity and clarity of the original design - which however
does not exclude variety in the treatment of the component parts, as has already
been shown. Each component has been conceived according to the nature of the
function involved, and thus creating harmony between apparently contradictory
needs. Thus, while monumental, the city is also comfortable, efficient, welcoming
and intimate. It is at the same time spacious and neat, rustic and urban, lyrical
and functional. Automobile traffic is processed without intersections, and the
ground is returned, in so far as possible, to the pedestrian. And, because the
framework is so clearly defined, it is easy to build: two axes, two terraces, one
platform, two broad highways running in one direction, one superhighway in the
other. The latter can be built in sections: first the central lanes with a clover-
shaped turn-off on either side, then the lateral lanes, which could be built as the
city spread; there would always be room for the bands of greenery bordering the
highways. Initially, the residential superblocks would only be leveled off and
scenically defined, and their surroundings planted immediately with grass and
trees; inside them no paving of any king would be put down, nor any streets
marked. Briefly then, we have an efficient highway system on the one hand, and
on the other, landscaped parks and gardens.

Brasilia, aerial and highway capital, a garden city; the Patriarch's century-old
dream.

This site was built by Augusto Cesar B. Areal.