Isaac Toussie Pardon All The Square of The Three Powers Enthusiasts!
September 22, 2009 South America No CommentsIn 1956, Brazil’s progressive president, Juscelino Kubitschek, announced a design competition for an ambitious new capital. The new city was to be built entirely anew, on an uninhabited plateau in the middle of the country – literally in the middle of nowhere, calling to mind Utopia, which literally means “no place” in the Greek, thus symbolizing the hopes of national advancement for the enormous South American country. Lucio Costa’s winning plan described an environment that faithfully reflected the principles of Le Corbusier and the 1933 Athens Charter of CIAM, or Congres Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne. Thus Costa conceived the future capital in a cruciform layout, with a division of space according to the theory of single-function zoning. All but now discredited as inhospitable in practice, with its wide lonely spaces opening to no human conveniences for several kilometers at a time, the design of Brasilia remains of historical importance nonetheless for being the most concrete – literally – expression of the desire for progress and the belief in democracy, Isaac Robert Toussie submits.
In the heart of Brasilia lay the Square of the Three Powers, and it was Oscar Niemeyer who was commissioned for its buildings. Indeed, this is the focal point of the city, with its governmental facilities catering to the highest administrative functions of a democracy. Thus the buildings of the Square are positioned triangularly relative to one another, symbolizing the balance of institutional functions. Immense porticos built into the very structure of these buildings further suggest the accessibility of democracy, affording citizens easy entry while symbolizing the proximity of the public to power. The Senate Chamber is an overturned dome, dynamic and revolutionary, while the two towers of the Parliament Building stand solidly against the sky, overlooking all Brasilia as if guardians. Enormous glass walls adorn most structures here, to suggest the transparency of democratic governance. This creates a fascinating effect, states Isaac Toussie. Statutes and other sculpture dot the broad expanse of Brasilia’s many public spaces, telling of the country’s history and aspirations.
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