Jordan University of Science and TechnologyCollege of Architecture and Design / Department of Architecture Arch. 331 Modern Architecture Instructor: Dr. Raed Al Tal

Summer 2012

The Metaphor of Machine / Brasilia New Monumentality

“New Monumentality,” a term used by a group of architects, among them Sigfired Giedion, Walter Gropius , Lucio Costa. They published their ideas in an article in Architectural Review 104, September 1948. the article talks about a “ second positive stage” that modern architecture had to undertake, namely “ the development of an idiom rich and flexible enough to express all the ideas that architecture – especially representational – ought to be capable of expressing. This “representative” quality is defined as the New Monumentality.

*modern architects rejected monumentality.New monumentality reflects democracy, its connected to nation not leadership.It failed in representation, self representation.Their idea was to take modern architecture 1 step forward – new monumentalityPeaceful image for building.

President Juscelino Kubitschek ordered the construction of Brasilia, fulfilling an article of the country’s constitution stating that the capital should be moved from Rio de Janeiro to a place close to the center of the country in 1956.

Lucio Costa

Born Febr 27 1902, Toulon, France.

Died June 13 1998, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

In March 1957 Lucio Costa was appointed the architect in charge of Brasilia’s Master Plan at the insistence of Oscar Niemeyer (1907-) , who had been previously selected by the Brazilian president Kubitschek as the principle architect of the capital .

Oscar Niemeyer "My design sprang up spontaneously in the earliest sketches," Niemeyer remembered. "A central pillar, with the architecture floating free in space, like a flower."

Oscar Niemeyer´s modern art museum, Niteroi

Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Curitiba

University of Constantine Algiers, Algeria by Oscar Niemeyer

The program stated that the projected city was to accommodate a population of 500,000, and was to be located in close proximity to the artificial lake Paranoa

Both Costa and Niemeyer envisioned Brasilia as both epicenter and symbol of national renovation

The city conceived as a model for the nation, a paradigm of development and indication of the new

Brazilian civilization – to mirror its social and architectural organization the patterns of an advanced

society

Brasilia as the “City of the Future” , but also recapturing the past, that is, between the globalizing influences of

the modern age and the local dispositions of identity and culture

The competition attracted 26 entries and provided a summation of the generally prevailing principles of modern

urban planning as put forward in CIAM manifestos.

- the idea of “functional zoning” (sharp segregation of urban activities)

-systems of traffic separation-the use of the greenbelt as an urban divider

-the residential areas ordered by the super block and neighborhood units

Neimeyer claimed, the requirement was not aimed at,

“the projection of an ordinary city…. The attainment of a solution which harmonized the local setting the character of

culture, civilization and monumentality which a capital requires”

“ Functionalism was not Enough,”

The question of the symbolic representation of collective values

*everyone wanted to design it, le Corbusier was travelling back & forth to Brasilia to establish good relations, but he didn’t design it in the end.There was a closed competition.The president was friends with Niemeyer & Lucio Costa so they designed it.Oscar – architect, Lucio – urban plannerOscar – basic shapes & abstraction + international style.They wanted function + symbolism & monumentality which led to new monumentality.

Monumentality and Democracy

The way to achieve monumentality, Costa implied, was to imbue the plan with spatial grandeur and confer a ceremonial focus on the city in the classical tradition:

Grand avenues, broad vistas and, most importantly, the establishment of a clear architectural hierarchy which highlighted the presence of government; this was precisely what the jury was looking for.

Postwar discussions, monumentality as an expression of democratic values

“anti-monumentalism “ against early 20th century dictatorial regimes

New conception of monumentality came from that the abstract and technical language of functionalism had revealed itself incapable of conveying the collective aspirations of a society. The missing “representational quality” in architecture was identified by many in the post war period as monumentality.

City and Symbol

To embody the idea of monumentality on the scale of an entire city, for Costa it depends on the correct balance between the city’s functional and symbolic attributes.

For him Brasilia was both a city and national symbol, and the idea came to him as a complete picture, a product of a vision

The Sign of the Cross

The primary gesture which anyone would make when pointing to a given place, or taking possession of it: the drawing of two axes crossing each other at right angles, that is the very sign of the Cross - (Metaphor)

1. the crossing of the two axis spatially defined the place where the new capital was to be born

2. the cross functioned as an iconic sign with profound symbolic connotation

*cross – first Landers to Brasilia were Christians, they were the ones who brought culture to this country – religion.Urban history – ancient cities – most of them were designed as a cross 2 axis.Sense of orientation – coordinate system.

The two axis of the Cross were aligned with the cardinal directions

Next step was to adapt the sign of the Cross to the :

-Topography-The natural drainage of the land

-The best possible orientation -To fit the triangular shape of the area to be urbanized

*airplane:Reflects the industrial or machine age, when they went to see the site, they flew in an airplane to get there not a car.2 axis – 1)short monumental, wider & straight, there were all the government buildings.2)Long, domestic, broken, curvilinear, no direct views.

The Pilot Plan as presented by Lucio Costa in 1957

The Master Plan

The city’s components were organized along :

The vertical axis – named the Monumental axis- Costa set the official administrative buildings , while he placed along the slightly curved horizontal artery the residential and associated sectors

The residential district was divided into two sectors: The North and South wings, both sectors were designed in a sequence of super blocks

"Brasilia´s Monumental Axis"

(visual primacy was given to this axis)

Three Powers Square ( legislative, executive and judicial)

The City Cathedral and Cultural centre seen from the TV tower

On May 31, 1970, the Cathedral’s structure was finished

The exterior of the cathedral resembles the circular plan and ribbed structure

The cathedral is a hyperboloid structure constructed from 16 concrete columns

Four bronze sculptures 3 m high, representing the Evangelists, can be seen at the external square in the entrance of the Temple.

Liverpool Metropolitan CathedralThe cathedral's architect was

Englishman Frederick Gibberd,

Inside the nave, three sculptures of angels are suspended by steel cables.

Brazil National Congress, in Brasilia

Government building in Brasilia

Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge crossing the

Parano Lake�

Modern architecture in Brasilia

the Convention Center