Brasilia

Brasilia was built because the Brazilian government decided that they needed to move the federal capital inland in an attempt to unify their states on the interior of the country. An international competition was for a master plan of the city because it was basically built from scratch. Lucio Costa won the competition with his proposal for a bird shaped plan that segmented the city into sectors depending on use. So there is a hotel sector, commercial sector, government sector, neighborhood sectors and on and on. Many of the iconic buildings in the city are by Oscar Niemeyer and the city is generally regarded as a living museum to these buildings, while the planning of Brasilia is generally thought of and studied as a failure.

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This church is probably one of Niemeyer's most iconic and recognizable buildings. He frequently used catenary curves as a structural element and also used them as a way to express his design. The interior of the church is this monumental room used as main church area and then below there are smaller chapels underground.

This museum was done as part of the city's bicentennial I believe and is a contemporary art space that has rotating exhibits. While the city, and entire country for that matter, are devoted to Niemeyer the upkeep on his buildings leaves something to be desired. The interior of the building is full of Niemeyer's usual ramps and curved platforms, but there is no natural light and the general public can't access the ramp that you see jutting out from the exterior.

 This is one of the highlights of the Brasilia trip, it is a government building. The spaces we saw were historically used for international parties and entertaining and full of historical furniture and artifacts that we weren't allowed to photograph. One of the things that I loved was the freestanding staircase and also the use of indoor/outdoor space. The upperlevel garden was gorgeous and provided great views to the rest of the city.

We visited the University of Brasilia and this is the main building also designed by Niemeyer. This building I really enjoyed again for the use of open air space and the mixing of interior and exterior, pulling nature in and providing a sense of cover.

This is the interior courtyard of the administration building, by far one of my favorite spaces on the entire trip. This space rose three levels and was full of ramps and stairs and screens with all of the adjacent interior spaces opening onto it. Hanging plants and trees were everywhere and all of the interior spaces were articulated. It was beautiful.

This is one of the first churches done by Niemeyer in Brasilia. It is located in the neighborhood sectors, called superblocks. The church was small and intimate but still utilizes his catenary curve language.