Brasilia and the utopia of an egalitarian city: hidden shades of gender-oriented segregation (original) (raw)

This paper aims to discuss public spaces in the Pilot Plan of Brasilia – the area as originally planned – its conception and a few cases of appropriation and lifestyle that have been transpiring nowadays. The current capital of Brazil arose from a political and historical urge to occupy the heartland of the country. Its design, of a strongly representative character, although not considered an ipsis litteris materialization of the Athens Charter, carried with it an attempt to implement a set of ideas brought forth by the Modern Movement. Breaking with the traditional model of other Brazilian cities by drastically reducing the role of the private segment in the city’s design, as well as in its reading and urban flow, Lucio Costa created a certain potential for appropriation and interaction with the public spaces of the city. Over time, the profuse and large voids in the city – which have endured incisive criticism for years – have proven to be a venue for mobilization and appropriation. Being so common in Brasilia’s landscape, public spaces, unlike what is seen in other so-called traditional Brazilian cities, make up the urban fabric that reveals the sui generis relationship between public and private within the city. Those characteristics are easily expressed when, for instance, one notices that the buildings in the Pilot Plan were originally conceived – and thus in their majority built – as projections, elevated on pilotis, keeping the land public and enabling wide circulation and permeability for pedestrians. The design represents a new way of organizing the city, always guided by the presence of public spaces. In order to explore those topics, this work presents a brief overview of the ideas brought forward by the Modern Movement that inspired Lucio Costa’s planning of the Pilot Plan of Brasilia, and also discusses the subject of centrality and profusion regarding public spaces in its configuration, seeing that, as opposed to what is observed in so-called traditional cities, public spaces underlie and constitute Brasilia’s urban fabric. Furthermore, this article seeks to exemplify some of the appropriations that have been taking place in such spaces at present, with particular emphasis on the city’s residential and monumental axes. The importance of voids within the urban fabric, enabling free appropriation and signification on behalf of the population, will also be exemplified, along with the discourse that – also at the planning stage – was vigorously incorporated into the accounts of those who reside in the city.