This is the last of my posts on Brasilia, Brazil. My first was an overview of mindbogglingly fascinating planned city and would be worth reading before or in conjunction with today’s post. The others are listed in yesterday’s post.

Many people I spoke to stated that Brasilia was built for the car not the pedestrian. This is not strictly true. The designer’s intention was that people and cars would be separated giving people safe spaces to walk in and cars few restrictions eg few pedestrian crossings. The idea is that between the city’s sectors, people would drive (or be driven). Once in a sector, they would walk along distinct walking routes.

The Realties are very different. Brasilia has very high car ownership and usage. In a country with low car ownership and usage comparatively. The lessons from this? Our cities need to reflect that humans need and want to walk and allow them direct safe routes. Probably too late for Brasilia but not too late for other places. Lessons below.

Make it easy for people to walk Between Sectors 

Walking between sectors is almost impossible. I think this first video fascinatingly illustrates this. The Hotel Diplomat and the Econohotel are about 600 metres apart. One is located in the Northern Hotel Sector and one in the Southern Hotel Sector. To safely and legally walk between them requires a 2.3 kilometre walk.

Give People logical and short Walking Routes
The Walking routes that have been laid out for people in Brasilia are not the shortest. This video  shows an example of this outside a shopping mall. To cross the road to the mall legally means a diversion of at least 400 metres in total.

This aerial shot of Brasilia from the Blog Discovering Urbanism shows the massive network of unofficial paths that criss cross the open space so people can get to places faster.

Street Life Helps make a City

It was uncanny at times to walk around this city and not see another pedestrian. There are very few cities in the world that have no one in the downtown walking. These three shots show some interesting contrasts. The first shot is of the street. The second is of an aerial walkway connecting two shopping areas over the Bus station. The third is the shopping centre interior. Where are the people? The shopping centre can be accessed by car, subway and bus but not by foot. I tried it and its not easy.

Show People Where to Walk

I have already mentioned in a previous blog that many of the the walking routes are not clearly identified. They need directional signposting, maps and other clues that you are heading in the right direction.

Create Safe Pedestrian Crossings to Protect Pedestrians

The pedestrian accident rate in Brasilia is five times higher than the US average. One of the reasons is the way Pedestrians have to negotiate roads. There are four types of Pedestrian crossings in Brasilia:

1. Underground passages: long, dark, deserted- as a result rarely used day or night
2. Underground passages linked to subway stations- newly updated, still long, better lit and more used but still often empty of people
3. A few legal crossings mostly accompanied by a very unpleasant audible walk signal as demonstrated in the first  video below.
4. Illegal crossings. This second video below illustrates the enormity of the task in downtown Brasilia. Many Brasilianos take their lives into their hands and bolt across six lanes of fast moving traffic to get to somewhere easily.  I can see why the death rate is so high

To misquote Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: “Brazil is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean you may think it’s a long walk down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to Brazil“. As the fifth largest country in the world, total area is 8,514,877 km2 (3,287,597 sq mi )

 For US people that’s almost 13 times the size of Texas. Its about 35 times the size of the UK. For Europeans its five tomes larger than France

Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Holland combined. It is 10% bigger than Australia. 

Population: 190 million.

It became the 50^th country I have visited and my first in South America. It also popped into my five favourite countries list! I loved Brazil.

I found Brazilian people to be warm and fun. The stereotypes I had of Brazilians actually proved to be true. They are loud. They are very much into touching each other when they talk. And they seem to live music and dance. I came across a group of teen boys in the Park publicly comparing their salsa moves -keen to impress women. In a shopping mall, a group of people,spontaneously started dancing to a song that came over the PA system. In car park, a group of guys were admiring each others car – sound systems and dancing away as they compared woofers and bass.

People inside and outside of Brazil waned me about the crime. Having been to El Salvador, India and Baltimore, I was not too phased. Brazil has a high crime rate- much higher then I am used to in Australia, although in slightly higher than that of much of the USA.

I handled Brazil in the same way as other places:

1. No jewellery

2. clothes similar to that worn by locals

3. looking like I knew where I was going (not an easy task in Brasilia see blog post)

It must have worked because people kept asking me for directions! So much for trying to fit in an be inconspicuous!

 I also made sure I only used ATMs inside the airport and at shopping malls. NB the ones at the airports charged the most expensive ATM fees I have ever paid anywhere in the world! I had a lot of difficulty getting cash out of Brazilian atms. Some ATMs were not equipped for international cards despite displaying the Visa and or MasterCard logos. Some would not accept a card with a chip. Banco d Brasil was consistently the one that I could get cash from.

Prices in Brazil were much higher than I expected. In a country where a lot of the population earns a dollar a day and the average middle class half that earned by their counterparts in the USA, I found prices surprising. Public transit costs in Brazil were only just a little less than Australia or USA, taxis abut the same pricing. Clothes were cheaper.  Accommodation in the cities was very close to international prices (although what you go for the money seemed greater). Meals were about half what I would pay in Australia in urban restaurants and dead cheap in rural areas (all you can eat for $5?)

The food was amazing- lots of fresh fruit, vegetables. They are very high meat consumers and some friends commented they struggled to be vegetarian.

I had been long been fascinated by the architecture, the structure, the layout and its impact on the people who call Brasilia home. Some people say its a success and others warn of its  failures.

Brasilia is the 160th city over 100 000  people I have visited. And I have rated every city and update the ratings regularly!!! (ESFJ personality). These ratings are based on my perceptions and experiences.

Overall Rating out of 100

I gave Brasília an overall score of 81.4 per cent. This gives it  74th place out of the 160th cities I have visited. Bizarrely , Canberra, the planned capital city of Australia also ranks 74th in the same list with the same score of 81.4 per cent.  I promise no manipulation. 

At President’s Palace

Aesthetics – 7th place
Aesthetically Brasilia is stunning with the nice setting, beautiful lake and the amazing Oscar Niemeyer architecture set amongst greened landscapes. I found much of the “Memorial spaces” too grand and daunting.  They seem to reduce the significance of humanity within them.

Culturally - 92nd place
For a capital Brasilia needs more. It is beaten in this area by 91 of the cities I have been to. More festivals, more museums, more displays and more theatre are needed. While I was there, the grassed area on Monumental Axis was being used by a sporting event. This should happen more often.

Safety-153rd out of 160
The crime rate of Brasília is very high but I didn’t feel unsafe- was I lucky or careful?  I was more cautious than I would be in other cities. Walking at night, in the evening was weird as the streets around the hotel zones were largely empty of people. There were plenty of people in the nearby shopping mall, however,

Public Transportation – 117th

While the road network is amazing, for a city of 2.5 million, transport in Brasília is woefully inadequate. The buses are very extensive and seem frequent in the day. However,  information about transport is impossible too access, the system isn’t cheap, ticketing is not yet integrated and infrastructure underdeveloped. Things will improve if/when the metro is extended and the light rail opens in 2014. Canberra’s Public Transit system is actually worse with less of a bus network and no metro/light rail. Biking is better in Canberra with good cycle paths.

Atmosphere and Vibe – 12th
There is a vibe about Brasília that beats across the city. Going thru city parks, shopping and market crowds and  in the bars. I found more pride in Brasilia than I do in Canberra, Australia.

Living there – 44th
All the people I met who lived in  Brasília liked it,..in fact many loved living there. They were concerns at the soaring house prices which puts much of the city out of the reach of middle class Brazilians and no hope for the poor. Housing is a serious social problem which needs to be fixed.

All in all, Brasília is a Good city. But to my mind, a planned city in a great country looking toward a great future,  needs to be a great city.

Brasília,  has me transfixed. Have a look at this amazing panoramic slide show of Brasília scenes.

Then take a peek at an  amazing flight over the city – in a hang glider!

The author of this video declares that Brasília,  is like the movie Gattaca. He is right

In the TV Sitcom Big Bang theory, the main character, Sheldon, is asked by Rajesh to imagine himself in the one place he feels most at home:

He replies: Simcity -or more specifically the Simcity I designed Sheldonopolis.
Rajesh: OK you are in Sheldonopolis
Sheldon: Where exactly? Sheldon square, Sheldon Towers, Sheldon Stadium, home of the fighting Sheldons….”

I wonder what would happen if we indeed stepped into a Simcity creation? Here you go:

For me visiting Brasília, the capital of Brazil a city planned and built in the late 1950s, is akin to visiting a Simcity creation brought to life. Wide avenues, treescaped vistas, monumental buildings, extensive parklands and strict height restrictions, one could almost see the Red, Blue and Yellow coloured squares of the Simcity game board.

You know what? I like this real “Sim City“! Although I want to see more added to the City of Brasília (more on that later)

Today’s blog post is largely about the design and construction of the city – and my reactions to it- good and bad. Check out other posts  on my Apppraisal of Brasília, and on being a tourist there. I also dedicate a post on the very famous Oscar Niemeyer key buildings. Today’s will probably be a long post as I am using this to understand this city -theres a lot to say. If you are interested in city planning or very different tourist locales enjoy!


Design Competition for Brasília
To choose the design for the new capital, a competition was held in 1957. Interestingly, the city was already under construction. 26 competitors submitted 41 projects. There were four shortlisted entries:
1. The winning entry by Lucio Costa which aimed for a population of 500 000 (see more below)

2. A fairly bland governmental city by Milman, Rocha and Gonçalves- population 673 000

3. Rino Levi  proposed a city with 16 super towers (above) in six sectors. The 75 to 80 story towers would have accommodated 288,000 people out of a total city population of 500 000! Each tower would have been a kilometre or less from the downtown, so the intention was most people would walk “on a larger scale than in other cities  -increase the contact among the population“

The Maurico Plan

4. Marcelo and Roberto Mauricio suggested my personal favourite: -Seven to 14 circle-shaped “urban” units each with a 2km diameter was planned with 72 000 people. Each unity would be “a complete city” where people would live next to their working place, so they would mostly walk. Total city population: 630,000 to  1,260,000. Their failure: to actually include space for the National Capital buildings!


Costa’s Brasilia – the one that was adopted


Basic Structure of the City

From the sky the plan looks like a bird-many have suggested it was designed like an aeroplane-something Costas refuted: “Nonsense…That is ridiculous. That’s an acceptable analogy, but it would be total imbecility to make a city in the shape of an airplane.”

The wings of the Bird run North-South (North is to the right). These were designed to be the residential districts of the city. The bulk of the residences were built along a radial arterial road with fast central lanes and side lanes for local traffic

The original crossing of the Axes in 1958

The East West axis (the head and body of the bird) is known as the Monumental Axis. East is where the “tail of then bird would be” Along this axis are the government buildings and the cultural, entertainment and sporting precincts.






Centre of the City
The city consists of two main axes crossing at right-angles.  At the intersection of the two axes the bus station was placed and around the the intersection were the banking, shopping, hotel and commercial districts and the entertainment center of the city, with  cinemas, restaurants, etc. This means everything in the hotel sector is a hotel and everything in the banking sector is a bank!

Center of the Axis Crossing facing north- the bus stn- the north south road is in the tunnel/underpass in centre of pic. The towers of the banking sector can be seen

Hotel Sector South- My hotel Melia Brasil 21 -which was a fantastic hotel

Monumental Axis- The East -West Axis

Plan of Brasilia showing the lake, the streets and key structures.The wings run North to South. The Monumental Axis, the Birds head, body and tail runs East to West (in this case right to left)

At the Western end of the East West Axis (left of the axis on the map) was planned to be the main railway station (which actually was an interstate bus station before it recently moved).  Running east along the Monumental axis are  sports grounds, Municipal (city) services and the TV tower. The large park on the Southwest of the Monumental Axis is City Park which is bigger than New York’s Central Park:

City Park

At the other end, the Eastern end (Bird tail) is a vast square called Three Powers Square around which are arranged the three key power centres of Brazil: the Supreme Federal Court, (National Congress and President Palace (Palácio do Planalto).  More on the buildings Thursday next week.

Moving west from the Three Powers Square along the Monumental Axis are the offices of the Brazilian Government Ministries which look like two rows of dominoes- each with a private parking area.

For the next kilometre from the Ministries to the Central Bus station are the Cathedral,  museums, library, planetarium all in a park like setting. 

The Monumental Axis itself consists of a long mall. In the middle of the Mall are broad sweeping lawns intended to be used by pedestrians and parades. On each side of the mall are two carriage ways of six lanes each. Urban legend has it that this is the widest road in the world. Not so. It does according to Guinness Book of Records have  the widest median strip in the world.

The Cathedral In Brasilia. Six lanes of traffic, a very wide median strip and six more lanes of traffic separate it from me in this picture.

Transport

Costas was determined to avoid the mistakes made in other cities. The road system was designed to reduce intersections with flyovers and cloverleafs and pedestrian tunnels.  Private car ownership was seen as the way of the future so the road system was designed to make driving a pleasure.

Costas envisaged taxis and buses for public transport even specifying the colour of the taxis (grey with green stripe) and the uniforms of the drivers.

Main Residential Superblocks
Large residential blocks were set in double or single line along both sides of the residential North-South highway axis. Each block was surrounded by bands of greenery planted with trees.  These blocks were grouped into four to create “superblocks”. All residential buildings within the blocks were six stories high raised on pillars (it is claimed so mothers could call down to their children).  While they were the same height level, the way the residential buildings were arranged on the blocks varied to create ground level variety

The local Church and secondary schools were placed in the middle of the superblocks. Shops and cinemas were included in the Superblock structure. All cars were parked at the front and residents would walk between schools, shops, church and residential buildings.

The superblocks were known by numbers, the residential buildings by letters in relation to the entrance to the superblock. An address would read, for example, N-S3-L, apt. 201. Costas believed that these superblocks would eliminate “undesirable class distinctions”

Entry map of a block of flats in a Super Block

 Other Housing
Isolated residential districts surrounded by trees and open countryside were sold for single family homes The lakefront was not to be developed for residences with the exception of the President’s house, to preserve the lake’s beauty

Brasilia Issues

A new town

1. The construction of a brand new city 200km from the nearest rail head with new highways built to link it to all parts of Brazil, almost bankrupted Brazil hence why some projects were not finished for years and some never completed
2. The army took control of Brazil in 1964, four years after the new capital had opened. Many infrastructure projects came to an end as the country slid into economic malaise.
3. Costas wanted no squatters or unplanned developments. This meant for example, the builders who came to build Brasilia were not allowed to live in the city so stayed in construction camps which grew into satellite  towns such as  Gama, Ceilândia, Taguatinga, Núcleo Bandeirante, Sobradinho, and Planaltina. 
4. All of the new towns, with the exception of Gama and Sobradinho were not planned.
5. The city population today is about 2.5 million (3.6 million in the metropolitan area) instead of the 0.5 million maximum originally envisaged
6. There is a debate as to whether Brasília consists of the whole metro area with the unplanned new towns or the original nucleus
7. the original plan was modified eg the original central pedestrian precinct with a European style cafe and market culture was never built
8. in a country with very low car ownership, building a car oriented city may not have been a good thing
9. In 1987 UNESCO put Brasília’s Pilot Plan on its official list of World Heritage sites. The disadvantage of this is it has turned the city into a museum. Nothing of the original plan can be altered

Criticisms of Brasília
Critics of the City are vicious:

• The greatest criticism of Brasília is that it is a culturally inappropriate city being based upon European ideas, not Brazilian ones
• it is designed for automobiles and air-conditioners, not people.
• The poor, who work in the construction and service industries, were not part of the plan for an inland capital and live in settlements up to 30 km outside the city, called ‘anti-Brasílias’.
• Holston claimed it fail to deliver on its social purpose
• “cultural wasteland”
• “lacks community”
• “the three day city” referring to the civil servants who delay arriving into Brasilia and get out as quickly as they can
• “Very spread out, painfully expensive and with little in the way of touristic sights, Brasilia doesn’t have much to offer the backpacker“ 

I think some critics are too harsh. Everyone who lived here that I talked to was very proud of their city. It is a city though you need to adapt to.

My Reflections

Walking here is Counter Intuitive

People often claim that Brasilia was not planned as a pedestrian city. This is not so. Pedestrian pathways were carefully constructed so that cars and Pedestrians are separated. The aim to me seems to be that people would drive or be driven to a key locale. Once there they could leave their car and walk around. The disadvantage is that if you want to walk between locales, you are frustrated.

For example. My Hotel Melia Brasil 21 is what would be a maximum ten minute walk from the Galeria Metro station in any other city. The walk however is 20-25 minutes and thats now I knew where I am going.  The nature of the footpaths mean people need to know where they lead because some just seem to stop and others veer in the opposite dorcetion to your destination but veer back via some hidden passageway.

As a  result, as  a tourist trying to get from hotel to shopping and main monuments basically means taxis, hire cars or Exhaustion. More seriously, there are unofficial paths everywhere crossing across the vast grassed areas and deaths from people crossing the roads illegally.

I will post more on the difficulty of walking around Brasilia.

Public Transit underdeveloped in a car city

The focus on private cars and the economic malaise Brazil went through has reduced the ability to finance good public transit infrastructure.   Sightseeing and living therefore become costly.

There is a new Metro which I loved but its missing stations and sections but has already reduced car travel. It seemed hugely popular when I rode it. Extensions to the system are planned.

If anyone can work out the bus system, let me know

More Car Usage
The city design  actively  increases car usage. One friend’s apartment is  1.2km from his office. in most cities that’s an easy walk. Not for him.
He has a metro station near hid house and one “near” his office. Again the trip would take 45 minutes  to traverse to get from home to Metro and Metro to office. So consequently he drives.

Streetlife vanishes . 

Walking around my hotel I would pass almost furtively other walkers . They were largely other tourists or the poor who cannot afford cars.

Centre of a City-note the absence of people walking on the paths

Sul 102 Subway station- people?

One brave person crossing six lanes

I found the streetlife in the air conditioned shopping malls which were full of Brasilianos walking freely. Straight lines, shopfronts etc

The City Park was also full of people in an environment free of cars.

However to get from City Park to the nearest shopping centre by foot is trickier than it needs to be.

Living Life

Doing errands is not easy. Everything is in sectors. Staying in a hotel, going to a client’s office and then to lunch with a friend and then buying a local cell phone is something that can be easily done in the same block in my home city Melbourne.

In Brasilia one would start at the Hotel sector, go to the Commercial sector then to the Shopping area and then back to the hotel.

Humanity dwarfed

This city makes me feel small as human. The big distances between sections of the city or between monuments combined with empty streets, vast squares and tall buildings all dwarf you.

Other cities have big buildings but they are “softened” by smaller buildings grouped around them eg shop fronts that are at a height accessible to humans.

In Brasilia.  the only place that seemed to allow people to capture a sense of their human size was inside the shopping malls.

While I understand the desire to emphasis the grandeur and help people have a sense of awe and wonder and excitement about their capital, their nation and its future. This was probably the intention at the start but is it time to allow people to interact and live with their city. Far from attractive people to their institutions the layout feels like it alienates humans.

So if Brasília my Simcity-what would I do?


1. Public Transport

• Complete the new tram line from the airport and down the busy W3 Road
• Build a light rail or Metro line down the Monumental  axis to the Lake and Lago Sul residential areas
• extend the existing metro line up the north axis
• Build more metro lines and light rail lines to link so that every “New Town” is linked
• Put arrows on pavements and crossings to indicate walking routes
• Build a network of bike paths with bike parks and bike rental station
• Introduce a car sharing scheme like Zip car with cars available near every Residential Super Block
• Get a bus map published

2. Structure

• Reduce the empty space across the city with buildings eg build buildings on the existing open air car parks in the commercial area with underground three storey car parks. The ground floors of these buildings would be shops and restaurants to create more of a streetscape
• Replace the car parks at the central bus station with a European style retail, cafe and market precinct
• Fill in gaps in the hotel districts with mixed residential/retail spaces
• Build underground retail outlets mall(s) under the Mall near the Ministry Buildings. This retail mall would be something similar to the Citylink Mall in Singapore or the Montreal underground city. Workers can eat meals, buy cell phones, books and clothes in lunch hours or after work. If an underground metro line and station was built in the Ministry area, the underground malls would link from the ministry buildings to the metro station(s)
• Have affordable quality public housing eg develop the empty superblocks area in the north of the city into affordable housing opportunities

3. Culture, Activities and Lifestyle

The Football in 2014 and Olympics in 2016 will make Brazil a place to visit for people across the globe. Brasilia is not ready

• Start promoting Brasília as an attractive destination in multiple languages
• Build a high speed rail line from Brasília to Sao Paulo to link onto the new line line built to Rio for the Olympic
• Introduce a series of activities and events to use the open spaces so there is always something happening in Brasilia downtown eg architecture festival, food festivals, film festivals-create a major event every month to build life and attract tourists
• Have a Farmers Markets downtown
• Encourage Musicians in the metro stations
• Get the Guggenheim to build a new museum opposite the existing museum on the pedestrian mall and build a new wing of national museum to encourage people to move between cultural buildings. Linked to a new Museum Metro Station, one stop to Central would mean both locals and tourists could visit easily

I am tempted to create Brasilia in a SimCity game (as soon as I can find one for my Mac) and see if I can add my changes and compare what that does to the game!