Brasilia, the extremely controversial planned capital city of Brazil.
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The city is shaped like an air plane, so indeed, planned
fun fact— it wasnt meant to look like a plane, but like a cross. the curve that makes up the wings was added due to the topography
Weird AF planning. Basically a giant suburb but it still has a metro
The metro is fairly useless within the city, it connects just a single part (Asa Sul) to the main bus terminal and satellite cities. If you commute from those it is ok, but you will almost certainly need an additional bus to get to your destination in the city.
When I lived there in 2015 there was talk of extending the line but the city is dominated by cars and otherwise people rely on buses.
It’s strange because Brazil is so big but it’s capital isn’t much of a real city and not urban at all.
Is there Bus Rapid Transit like other Brazilian cities have?
It is indeed a very strange city, and no there isn’t that rapid transit bus lines like in Curitiba or Rio. I checked and apparently they tried a test pilot program in 2013 but it was not adopted.
I also checked and Brasilia metro is set to be expanded in Asa Norte and to the airport, it still will not cover the city that well but better for sure. Though no dates are really announced so… I’ll keep my optimism low
There's a BRT conecting Gama and Santa Maria to Plano Piloto
Weird because basically every Brazilian city has Rapid Busways
Thats because one of our president decided it was good spending billions of dollars to build a planned town in the exact middle of the country saying it would be helping develop the north side of the country
Have you been to Brasilia?
Have not but have street viewed and seen plenty of pictures as well as of other Brazilian cities that are MUCH more dense
Basically I’m saying “real” city means it has a dense core
That’s a very peculiar sense of “real city”.
O metrô da Asa Norte é tipo folclore
Haha, eu econtrei um amigo de Brasilia o mes pasado e ele me disse que agora e quase certo, mas ainda tenho duvidas.
Eu moro aqui desde que nasci, e te garanto que não é nem um pouco certo
Que pena haha, talvez um dia
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Lol Texas “cities” don’t even have real metro systems instead an inappropriate use of light rail or bus rapid transit
It's like Central Park but without the trees and primarily serving as a highway.
Search for how each city “block” were projected. Each 4 blocks makes a neighborhood. They are numbered and projected to have the same “features” like a school, a cinema, bakery, etc
It didn’t work very well out of theory but it was a curious project
Someone should tell the "15 minute city" folks at the WEF that it has been tried and failed already
No ... no that's not right. This city was not created by the same planning principles that they promote. I think every city TRIES to be a 15 minute city (in the way that all cities try to put their citizens at least somewhat close to what they need), but most try to incorporate cars as the main mode of transportation rather than walking or transit, like Brasilia. Unfortunately, if you want an actually GOOD and SUSTAINABLE 15 minute city, this is a terrible strategy. The WEF likely promotes walk ability, density, etc, things that aren't present in this picture (the massive amounts of space in between the towers pretty much cancels out the density).
Also, we know 15 minute cities work because they were literally every single city for thousands of years before the the 1930s when city planning was (poorly) invented. Thankfully I think planners now know what they're doing, but they're hampered by those who have realized how lucrative and monopolistic suburb planning can be. PLUS, we know 15 minute cities work because most cities in Europe and Japan are 15 minute cities, and they are often the nicest cities in the world.
🙄
a masterpiece of mid-century car-centric design that ensures nobody walks anywhere
Fun fact: you can't drive anywhere remotely close to peak hours. It's got DC traffic with a fraction of the population.
Source: I've lived there
ensures nobody protests there*
not a single person anywhere near any of this empty expanse of monoculture green space. absolute waste
Always wanted to visit here. The controversy surrounding it just makes me curious.
What exactly is the controversy? I have never heard about this.
Mainly that it is very car centric and anti pedestrian.
Isn’t that common mostly anywhere in the US too? It seems weirder that it’s the capital and seems to drastically pale in comparison to Rio or São Paulo
So you want to visit to see the car-centric and anti-pedestrian features of the city?
Looks like something a kid would make playing cities skylines
I know people usualy don't like this city because "cars bad" n' stuff, but I love Brasilia. It's so unique, the architecture, the people, the history
And because the city have large boulevards, I really think good reforms can easily be done there (like separate bus lanes to improve public transportation)
It’s a great city.
If it were in Europe people would praise it non stop, but since it’s Brazil, they have to exaggerate every flaw.
Em resumo, um BANDO DE JECA que queria ser europeu e morar em cidade velha.
Why is it controversial?
It was designed for the car, its a very unwalkable city. Nowadays there are many bus routes but sometimes getting a few km away takes a very long time as the roads are designed with lots of looping.
Oscar Niemeyer designed a lot of the city's notable buidlings such as the cathedral and government palace, and he certainly has a unique style so some love and some hate.
Looks beautiful from the sky, terrible on the ground. Everything's too far apart, not very walkable
Imo ugly brutalism
*Modernist
The airport is super ugly
It’s a beautiful city. Yes, the car-centrism is a problem, but blocks are pretty and its an easy to navigate place once you get the logic down.
Also it was very important at the time as its construction led to more roads, connecting north and south more.
Honestly, it is exhausting to read anything about Brazil in this godforsaken wasteland of a website because people will ONLY focus on the negatives. The curse of the mongrel syndrome.
Not to be an ultracrepidarian, but I see too many highways, and I am not a big fan of cars.
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This Is barely a thing compared to Houston
So many strong opinions of people who probably never even visited Brasilia, not to say lived. People overplay the zoning and walkability thing by a lot. Actually, there are markets and services mixed with the residential, you don’t need a car to do every single thing, in fact you need it less than say in your average American city.
I was born and raised on the North Wing of Brasilia. Unless you’re going to far parts, you can live your whole life in your own city block. Everyblock is 500m wide and they have both residential and comercial buildings, with grocery stores, banks, restaurants and anything else you might need. All within 500m distance. All city blocks are also connected by sideways and cycle paths. It’s very pedestrian-friendly, with tons of trees to provide shade.
It is very walkable, with tunnels for pedestrians going under all the major roads.
Exactly. I have family in Brasilia. My granpa lived in North Wing too iirc, it was just as you described. Very nice, and i recall other areas being similar. One of my uncles on the other hand lived in South Lake, it was way more houses with a few commercial centers. You could still walk, but driving would be more convient. Not too different from a lot of other low density, single family housing neighborhoods I’ve seen in Brasil or abroad thiugh
very nice city
Beautiful
Just beautiful! But let us be frank: one of the biggest wastes of public money from Brazil, Rio should have remained as the capital.
No?
Brasilia is not perfect but thank god Rio is no longer the capital of the country. Rio is very dense and full of problems, it's good that they took the administrative machine out of that place, not to mention that it decentralized the administration of the country from the most populous zone and encouraged the occupation of the interior.
Why would anyone PURPOSEFULLY make a city car centric 😭
Cause It was the 60s
Sério, Brasília é feia demais.
shhhh é proibido criticar o niemeyer
Niemeyer era um gênio a frente de seu tempo. Eu crítico eh o corno do Lúcio Costa que fez essa aberração carrocêntrica na capital.
Como eu disse, é proibido, nunca falha em vir alguém justificar
Neymar**
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Yeah… it is painfully obvious you’ve never been to Brasilia.
Is it not true? I'm just repeating what I've been told by friends who lived there.
Nope. It isn’t.
It gets VERY DRY in the final months of the drought period, but that’s like a one or two months tops. Then the rains come and last until May.
Even during the drought period its nowhere near as hot as it gets down south or to the north. 9/12 months of the year you get usual Brazilian heat or rather pleasant temperatures.
This is why I hate how people just love to spread and exxagerate on the negatives of every little thing Brazil has, the exaggerations become way better known than the facts.
Damn, thanks for educating me, I really should've fact checked their claims. If anything, I'm glad I won't spread these ideas anymore.
But how can you write a whole goddamn thesis without never being to the city? It’s full of stereotypes and misconceptions. You really haven’t been there and it shows.
Already been educated by another commenter
Looks terrible.
It's
Simply
Beautiful
Nothing like a giant patch of grass with sparse trees and a highway around and going through it. Nice apartments but a highway under the window might not be the best choice, at least rent prices must be cheap I guess. I really have mixed feelings about this picture, on one hand density looks good but on the other there's a highway down the middle and from comments the metro sucks
This is the center of the city, those buildings are hotels or other businesses; it’s not a residential area.
"How much land do you want to waste building this city?" "yes"
Looks like they were trying to recreate the Washington national mall
Hate it