

The celebration of this imagined and real city, therefore, is essential in times of confinement. Lucio Costa's French-affiliated city was born to be free, open, and democratic utopia.

Obviously no cities were designed for this, but the Plano Piloto de Brasília has particularities that make seclusion the antithesis of what it was meant to be. This city was not invented for cloistered residents. In order to understand the daily life that exists there, we invited six professionals- in the field of architecture and urbanism - who live in the city, to share their visions with us and bring a few more layers that help to build an interpretation of utopia and reality that Brasília currently represents.īelow, we've compiled excerpts by Daniel Mangabeira, founding partner of Bloco Arquitetos, Gabriela Cascelli Farinasso and Luiza Dias Coelho, alumni of UnB and co-founders of the collective Arquitetas inVisíveis (inVisible Architects), Maribel Aliaga Fuentes, professor and researcher at FAU-UnB, and Luiz Eduardo Sarmento, architect and urban planner at IPHAN and Senior Adviser at IAB-DF, all accompanied by photographs of the Brazilian capital by Joana França.īrasília and quarantine are antagonistic. This year the capital turned 60, and still remains intriguing for scholars, students, and anyone who allows themselves to explore it better. 50 years ago Clarice Lispector already pointed out how difficult it was to unveil Brasilia: "the two architects did not think of building beautiful, it would be easy they raised their amazement, and left the amazement unexplained".
