7 – Architecture and cultural elements

Brasilia retrains the largest heritage area (112.25 km²) listed in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). The Federal District also has other elements considered heritage items by federal and district institutions that, due to their significant importance, require permanent protection and preservation to assure their legacy to future generations. The cultural heritage can be divided into two large groups: Material Assets: includes monuments, buildings or sites considered due to their historical, aesthetic, archeological, scientific, ethnological or anthropological importance; Immaterial Assets: includes knowledge, celebrations, forms of expression. and places tied to symbolic, ritualistic, artistic, ethnic or productive practices, with the perspective of recognizing the contribution of different social groups to the elaboration of the Federal District history and identity. Examples of Material Assets Conjunto Urbanístico de Brasília (Brasilia Urban Complex) Catedral Metropolitana de Brasília (Brasilia Metropolitan Cathedral) Catetinho Teatro Nacional (National Theater) Capela Nossa Senhora […]
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Lúcio Costa was born in 1902 in Toulon, France and died in 1998 in Rio de Janeiro. He lived in England and Switzerland and moved to Brazil in 1917. In 1922, he graduated as an architect from the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro. He developed some neocolonial projects at the beginning of his career but later adhered to modernism, inspired by the work of Le Corbusier. With the transfer of the capital to the Central Plain, the National Contest for the Pilot Plan in the New Capital of Brazil was organized in 1956, in which the architect submitted a project. The next year, the winning project was published, that designed by Lúcio Costa. The Brasilia Pilot Plan project is a landmark of architecture and urbanism, was inspired by modern urbanism, included a hierarchical system of access roads and the separation of vehicles and pedestrians, applying principles […]
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Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho was born in Rio de Janeiro on December 15, 1907. He began his studies in architecture in 1929 at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes, graduating in 1934. At the beginning of his career, he began working with Lúcio Costa and the Swiss architect, Le Corbusier, who greatly influenced his work. He designed large projects in Brazil and world, being the Conjunto Arquitetônico da Pampulha (Pampulha Architectural Complex), in Belo Horizonte, his first large individual project, which gained him international fame. In 1956, he was invited by President Juscelino Kubitschek to participate in the construction of Brasilia, designing its public buildings. Among the Niemeyer works in the capital, the Palácio do Planalto (Planalto Palace), Congresso Nacional (National Congress), Palácio da Alvorada (Palace of the Dawn), Palácio do Itamaraty (Itamaraty Palace) and the Catedral de Brasília (Brasilia Cathedral) stand out. Marked by their unique […]
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Roberto Burle Marx (1909 – 1994) Brazilian artist, graduated in Art from the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (Fine Arts National School) in Rio de Janeiro, and obtained international fame as a landscape engineer with projects in twenty countries. Besides being a landscape engineer, he was also a painter, engraver, lithographer, ceramist and cloth and jewelry designer. At the invitation of Lúcio Costa, he went to Brasilia where he cooperated with architects to oversee the integration of his gardens into the proposed architecture and urbanism. The employment of the diverse natural vegetation in the composition of organic and sinuous forms made his art, identified as vanguard at the time, a synonym to Brazilian landscaping around the world. Burle Marx Gardens in Brasilia: Eixo Monumental (Monument Axis) 308 South Jardim Palácio do Itamaraty (Itamaraty Palace Garden) Praça dos Cristais (Crystals Plaza) Jardim Palácio da Justiça (Palace of Justice Garden) Teatro Nacional […]
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Athos Bulcão was born in 1918 in Catete, Rio de Janeiro and died in Brasilia in 2008. He was a Brazilian painter, sculpture and designer who studied medicine and changed his major to art. He worked with Portinari on the Mural de São Francisco de Assis (São Francisco de Assis Mural) in Pampulha. In 1957 he was invited by the architect, Oscar Niemeyer, to join the Brasilia construction team. He moved in 1958 and, since then, never left the capital. His work possesses an extreme harmony between design, form and color, which resulted in original, multiple and lucid creations. One can find paintings, designs, collages, masks, sceneries and theatrical figurines, murals, panels and custom made sculptures in his collection. The big difference in Athos Bulcão’s work is its democratization, for the most part it is exposed in different points in the city, accessible to all who pass by. Besides that, […]
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The Brasilia signage project is by architect Danilo Barbosa and was developed by his team at the Companhia de Planejamento do Distrito Federal (Federal District Planning Company) – Codeplan at the end of the 1970s. Danilo was born in São José do Rio Preto, came to Brasilia in 1968 to study architecture at the University of Brasilia, worked professionally in different Federal District Government institutions and retired in 2017. The signs were designed to make finding locations by pedestrians and drivers easier. To this end, the standards from the InterAmerican Sign Manual were adopted. The process for planning the signage was considered so as to not interfere with the landscape and to seek to assimilate the city scales. At first, the signs were installed using a plaster of Paris structure. It was only in the 90s that these structures were replaced with steel. Each color used has a meaning: Green […]
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The Federal District has 72 ecological and urban parks administered by IBRAM (Instituto Brasília Ambiental) (Brasilia Environmental Institute). The locations are rich in the native Cerrado fauna and flora, have trails for ecological hikes, places to practice sports, environmental education, research and cultural and social events, among other attractions. The great number of parks is a peculiar characteristic of the Federal District, which also has parks administrated by the respective administrative regions as well as other protected areas of relevant interest to visitors. Figure 71 – Federal District Parks
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The Natural World Heritage Sites were created by UNESCO with the objective of protecting exceptional areas in relation to their biological diversity and landscape. Environmental protection, respect for cultural diversity and native populations are the main focus, besides the benefits to nature. These areas represent a significant source of income due to ecotourism. Even with the enormous diversity in Brazil, the number of areas protected by legislation is small. There are 8 recognized areas, among them are protected Cerrado locations: Chapada dos Veadeiros (Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park) and Parque Nacional das Emas (Emas National Park). Even though the Federal District does not have a specific site, it is part of the cerrado biome, the area under Chapada dos Veadeiros protection, which has been a national park since 1961. It is about 265 km from the center of Brasilia and contains the municipalities of Alto Paraíso de Goiás, Cavalcante, Teresina […]
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