In honor of the 63rd anniversary of Brasília, celebrated this April 21st, Rádio Nacional brings a bit of the history of the construction of the federal capital, revealed in a conversation with Frederico Flósculo, professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Brasília. Rádio Nacional: The very peculiar construction of the federal capital in the Central Plateau gave the city characteristics that range from monumental aspects to innovative architecture, which in 1987 gave the city recognition by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. What makes Brasília’s architectural urban complex so special? Frederico Flósculo: Brasília is an extraordinary episode in Brazilian history, because above all it was the realization of the republican dream of transferring the capital of the Republic to the interior of Brazil. This was a dream even before the Republic. It was a dream expressed by José Bonifácio, by Brazilian leaders who saw the need to defend the Brazilian capital well, but also manage a gigantic country. So, finally, Juscelino Kubitschek managed to do just that and the story of that success is a very particular story, because it owes a lot, both to the works of the [Getúlio] Vargas, because Vargas almost created Brasília, he created study commissions and practically set up the entire group that was later used by Juscelino himself, but also by Juscelino Kubitschek who was thus the great hero of Brasília because he faced an extraordinarily aggressive political opposition against the realization of the city. But Juscelino had in his favor the contribution of an extraordinary architect. Oscar Niemeyer. that he had known since he was mayor of Belo Horizonte, since the 1930s. Oscar Niemeyer and Juscelino had a friendship, a solid mutual trust and Juscelino entrusted Oscar with the Brasília project. But Oscar Niemeyer carefully, wisely, refused. Oscar Niemeyer was linked to OAB, proposed the holding of a national public contest and in that national contest, in 1957, another extraordinary carioca urban planner, Lúcio Costa, won. Although born in France, Lúcio Costa was the teacher of Oscar Niemeyer, a great reformer of Brazilian education, creator of IPHAN. In fact, the National Service later became the National Institute of National Public, Historic and Artistic Heritage. And then, it is Lucio Costa’s proposal, extraordinary, that will really start to materialize Brasilia. So Lúcio Costa proposes a very simple city, the layout, two axes that cross, one axis going down towards the lake that was already defined and another axis, embracing the great hill of Cruzeiro. And it is along this axis that forms the embrace that the residential superblocks are distributed. And on the axis that goes down the hill towards the lake, it became the monumental axis where the main zones are placed, sectors both of the capital of the Republic, and of support and attraction of the fundamental functions of the city. Horizonte de Brasília – Marcello Casal JrAgência Brasil Rádio Nacional: You mentioned the history of the pilot plan competition and I would like to know what were the main highlights of Lúcio Costa’s project and how it was put into practice. Frederico Flósculo: And there is an extraordinary story of the contest itself. When Lúcio Costa proposed, he really proposed of all the plans that had been presented, the most elegant one, he proposed a park city that was chosen by the jury that had international members, they chose it because of the simplicity and feasibility and extreme beauty of the plan. Juscelino wanted Oscar to design the buildings, the buildings, the architecture project. And there was an urban planner who won the competition that the two of them would have to work together. And Juscelino knew architects and urban planners very well. He knows how it is with this group that doesn’t reconcile, that isn’t very friendly, you’re going to have hell on earth. Then he got this gift there. The choice was really free and a great master and companion of Oscar was the winner. The two, then, made the city that belongs to both Lúcio and Oscar. National Congress seen from the Plano Piloto Bus Station- Fabio Rodrigues-Pozzebom/ Agência Brasil There are several episodes in Brasília, at the National Congress in which you would be amazed to see, for example, that beautiful game of shapes of the two domes, one facing upwards, the two twin buildings, all of which were conceived simultaneously by Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer. We attribute it only to Oscar, but the person who started drawing, who made the first proposal to the National Congress, was Lúcio Costa. And Oscar doubled and so begins a succession of extraordinary achievements in just over two years of work, from project to execution, thanks also to a great engineer named Israel Pinheiro. So it’s something that moves Brazilianness, if you think that, in about a thousand days, this heroic team managed to deliver to Brazil on April 21, 1960, the capital with the president installed, with the powers installed in condition to start to make the Brazilian government manifest itself and manage Brazil from the Central Plateau. A moment of immense emotion. And from there, Brazil began to know Brasília. Because no one knew what that thing was, which they knew from some photographs of the work, from some drawings of the work. The Brazilianness throughout those 60s and 70s, came, descended, came from all over the planet Brazil to work in Brasília, in its embassies, in its ministries. It became a center of Brazilianness, which makes us proud. There is no city, capital, in the world that has the beauty, integrity, elevation of Brasilia. That is why, at the end of the 1980s, we ended up being distinguished by UNESCO with the title of Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The only Cultural Heritage of Humanity that is modernist, which is from the 20th century. Palácio do Planalto – Marcello Casal JrAgência Brasil Rádio Nacional: Professor Flósculo, considering the urban aspects, how has the city been transformed over these 63 years of existence? Frederico Flósculo: We are now in the process of preserving this nucleus because against, let’s say, the integrity of that Brasília by JK, by Oscar Niemeyer, by Lúcio Costa, by Israel Pinheiro, there are many enemies, I put it in quotation marks, represented by real estate speculators . By opportunists, by land grabbers, by various waves of people who think they can impose the same type of urban defeat on Brasília that was imposed, in particular, on Rio de Janeiro. So we have that stigma too. Of not allowing what happened in Rio, which still continues to terrorize the former capital, to happen in Brasilia, but unfortunately it is already happening. From that moment of inauguration on April 21, 1960, until today, these 63 years that have passed, we have several discontinuities that were almost fatal for Brasilia. Cruel continuity like the military dictatorship. And it almost kills Brasilia. The military almost managed to crush all that impulse to create the city, of republicanism. This was very important because with the resumption of democracy in the mid-1980s, we had an interrupted democracy. And we had a frankly disastrous succession of governors. Brasília has not been lucky, until today, with its democracy because the governors have not shown, let’s say, identity and awareness of the greatness of the city’s project, on the contrary, Brasília has become an increasingly easy object of personal projects, of smaller projects, of speculation and even corruption of the use of its territory. Construction of residential and commercial buildings in the Northwest Sector. in Brasilia – Marcello Casal JrAgência Brasil Rádio Nacional: In closing, can you comment on what progress has been made in terms of occupation of the city, such as policies such as plans to preserve the urban complex of Brasília, which has been waiting for ten years to be completed. Frederico Flósculo: We arrived in 1993, when Brasilia already had political autonomy since 88, nominally, by the Federal Constitution and since 90, by the election of the first governor. And that’s when, in 1993, we had the Organic Law of the Federal District, defining the need for a PPCUB, and a preservation plan for the urban complex of Brasilia. From 1993 until today, 2023, we have a lapse of 30 years. 30 years of lapse, in which Brasilia was unable to do its PPCUB. I mean, it was one of the first plans to be made in 93, it was never made. Why? The reason is: successive governors, to this day, have not wanted preservation to get in the way of their business. That is to say, it is when planning is bad for politics. And this, unfortunately, happens in our country. Not having a PPCUB is something scandalous and is an indication of poor public management. We have there, on the eve of having a terrible PPCUB, in my opinion, the PPCUB, the first PPCUB will already be full of bad government moves. With unbelievable things, allotment of the monumental axis, gigantic lots destined for restaurants, shopping malls, a lot of things that would be very welcome in cities, neighborhoods, administrations and not on the monumental axis. Tesourinhas – Marcello Casal JrAgência Brasil Listen on Radioagência Nacional:
Agência Brasil
Folha Nobre - Desde 2013 - ©