Brasilia Segment from The Shock of the New

[@donaldoportela]

Brazilians didn't just decide in 1955 to build a new capital in the middle of nowhere. It was written in the constitution that the capital would be moved in to the center of the country since 1891, since Rio was too hard to defend from a naval invasion, among other things. When he says the experiment 'failed', by pointing some of the flaws of the city, it is still remarkable that Brasilia even exists, given that Brazil has never been a rich country and it was mostly built in 5 years. There weren't even good roads to use to get there and a massive manpower had to be transferred from elsewhere in the country. Today I feel that Brasilia is very different from other brazilian cities, and for the better, at least in plano piloto, the "true projected part". It is generally safer, cleaner, greener and with less traffic jams.

[@ajs41]

I like the fact that the architecture of Brasilia fits in with the motto on Brazil's flag, Order and Progress.

[@j.h.2110]

Lucio Costa said in his biography and interview in Cruzeiro magazine that Brasília should have the shape of a cross and not a bird, as he saw that complete planning in the shape of a cross would not be possible because of the terrain of the place. .

[@neilwick5219]

You have to remember two things. First, and most important, this video was made 30 years ago. Any city changes a lot in 30 years. Secondly, the "Shock of the New" series has it's own point of view that it was trying to put across. Art is always subjective.

[@TransientVisions]

2021 Update: This film was made 40+ years ago.

[@teltri]

One of the best visual documentaries I've ever seen.

[@slobomotion]

I have been trying to find this program "forever!" I remember it around 1981. Thank you so much! Uprated and shared.

[@colinsmith1176]

Brasilia looks like a dystopian nightmare.

[@danandjenphotography4967]

I love the style of modernism, the concrete future style really gets me! I would love to visit this city! i grew up in a block of flats and loved it!

[@mrwilfredmyers7566]

The place looks wonderfull.

[@WTFTVactivism]

man, you can crash at my place anytime. so good to hear foreigners would like to visit brasilia :)

[@rickyseabra]

And just reiterating: I think more could have been done for the rest of the DF in terms of urban planning and preservation of the Cerrado outside AND inside the Plano Piloto. There are still very old and intact stretches of Cerrado in the Plano Piloto that are being destroyed as we speak. The growth of the government machine should be questioned even inside the Plano Piloto. The destruction of the Cerrado in Setor Noroeste and the areas between the Congress and the Ponte JK should be stopped.

[@brenopagoto]

The images of this video are fascinating! The music fits perfectly! Someday I'll go there...

[@bfnaves]

Phenotype, in this case, has prevailed. Born and raised here but spending several years abroad I can tell the city has changed and that cold architecture has got along pretty well with local nature.

[@ajs41]

I love the music on this segment. I wonder who composed it. It sounds a bit like the sort of thing that Trevor Horn might have produced for progressive rock band Yes. Also, the opening shot reminds me of the cover of Mike Oldfield's 1983 album Crises.

[@moorong]

It is extraordinary that Hughes says "apart from Chandigarh Brasilia is the only city in the world built from scratch along rational town planning lines" when as an Australian he knows perfectly well that our capital Canberra was built from scratch. More than a few passing resemblances to Brasilia too, with the lakes, parklands, curvy roads, and self-consciously futuristic architecture. What can Hughes have been thinking?

[@Pixtureske]

Canberra is not a modernist city though, that's what he meant by "along the CORBUSIAN lines of rational town planning".

[@rickyseabra]

I lived 13 years in Brasilia and go there at least 5 times a year. Indeed it was made for the car but walking around Brasilia (Plano Piloto) is a cool experience (and quite different from walking in other cities) if you're up to it. I go to Ceilandia and Taguatinga by metro... sometimes bus. It's a shame that Lucio Costas construction standards weren't applied to the rest of the DF.

[@rickyseabra]

I totally agree with you on that. Often in design when you over-design (in this case design for utopia) you get the opposite effect. What was meant to be a classless city ended up being a caricature of Brazil's contrasts. But social differences aside, the Plano Piloto by Lucio Costa is a very pleasant place to live for locals (and admittedly a weird place to visit for outsiders). But I think a lot of cities can learn from design principles of the Super Quadras.

[@MrRinx1974]

I love architecture and green spaces. Its a beautiful city. Its a shame that its crumbling. I think its difficult and expensive to maintain these modern buildings. But its remote location and lack of public access leaves me with the impression that it was designed to keep people out and it was meant to enjoyed only be the government elite and that its not for the Brazilian citizens that theses buildings technically belong too.

[@FOLIPE]

Greg Vogelzang what? It is not crumbling.

[@ajs41]

Modernism is beautiful as long as the buildings are kept in good condition and not neglected.

[@hernameisntrio]

You can certainly rent or buy a place in Brasilia. It's just expensive and proibitive for a large portion of the people who need to work in the city. So they move between the satellite cities and the "plano piloto" every day. But it is not outlawed and not impossible, as I'm not rich and was able to rent a place when I studied there. It is also possible to live there without owning a car. Just be very patient to wait for public transportation and prepare for long boring walks under the sun.

[@1974FLA]

can I come ? I'd like to see Brasilia

[@Retsler54]

I wish to visit this city.

[@andy7666]

A South American version of Hitlers attempted "Germania"? It seems that way to me but more Pyonyang as some would suggest - no wonder the BBC slated it (while lauding the what would become nightmare, "futuristic" tower blocks in Britain and Western Europe). Very interesting though, it just shows how quickly a city can come to prominence - Berlin itself is a new city, and think of so many cities in the far East that have become economic powerhouses. In the ancient World we had the Alexandria's and later the Roman cities all built to a standard, impressive spec. Look at Saudi Arabia today - a quirk of fate having given theses people so much money to invest they can create new, high class cities from scratch. For a great city to "survive" (at least for a good time and perhaps to survive revolutions etc.) it needs a. Good design and construction b. Plenty of money, excess cash c. People who can and will appreciate it - a homogenous people (preferably the people who built it themselves), of law abiding citizens (however this comes about politically or religiously). Its not surprising the East/Far East is ahead in this way today - they have all three of these conditions and will build the most impressive cities for the coming centuries, particularly the Far Eastern peoples.

[@moorong]

Trust me, the people who designed Canberra thought they were being fully rational, and generally speaking they were. Canberra is designed as a linear city, to avoid the congestion associated with a radial design.

[@RafRezen]

Brasilia was planned to interiorize Brasil, is model capital, was made to be different from anything, and it works. Everyone who lives in Brasilia that i know is happy and satisfied, so no one better than its habitants to determine that it not a failled experiment, its joyful city with hospitable people. That region develop from its construction and many cities around came up after that, and after all was a strategic decision move capital to the country side and it had Armed Forces support/approval.

[@JCarlosCS1221]

Well, I like how that "utopia" looks, because Brasilia looks good to me.

[@colinsmith1176]

What's so great about it? There are no sidewalks, no street life. It seems like a bunch of islands of residences and shopping malls.

[@susomedin5770]

@@colinsmith1176 street life is unamerican.

[@JamesParsonsDunckervon]

We have a condensed version of this type of modern, rational, "1960's capital" in the USA: Albany, NY.

[@richardstewartwalsh1979]

Looks like we have repeated this fantasy all over the world today. Yet Brazilia still takes home the "empty cake prize". So what about the World Cup facilities? At least they will be accessable... no?

[@JamesParsonsDunckervon]

Richard Stewart Walsh different countries have different handicapped requirements. The USA's requirements are the most extensive in my experience. I imagine Brasil planned their stadia for handicapped accessibility, but they probably are cutting out many things from the original plans.as time and money run out.

[@JamesParsonsDunckervon]

Brasila: "a ceremonial slum". ouch.

[@ajs41]

Robert Smith visits Albany for this series in one of the earlier programmes.

[@colinsmith1176]

I've been to Albany. It felt like a run down old industrial town whose industry had long since left.

[@rickyseabra]

This video was shot at the end of a military dictatorship which he didn't even mention. The country was in shambles. Today Brasilia is probably the only true successful modernist vision worthy of being reproduced. The city is 100 times greener than it was when it was built. It has become a forest. It is a fabulous place to live.

[@shrikerlior]

did you saw the lightning ?? time: 3:01/2 left side

[@rickyseabra]

@stereo123 Great comment!!! Brasilia rules!

[@NorceCodine]

But can you actually rent or buy a place in Brasilia, or is it off limit to residential living? Because I heard that only the people who work there are allowed to live just outside of the city. I was always intrigued by this place.

[@NorceCodine]

Brasilia is the quest for human perfection set into concrete, glass and steel - in a morbid sense the answer to what the Nazis failed to achieve with Germania, the triumph of a vision of genius, that in a twist of fate materialized not in Europe, not in America, but in Brazil. If they could build Brasilia, then who knows, maybe Brazil is the dark horse which holds the key to the future of mankind.

[@sthuon]

There have been many planned cities throughout history, Persepolis, Alexandria, Constantinople, Baghdad, St. Petersburg, Washington D.C., Paris (almost completely rebuilt by Haussmann and Napoleon III in the 19th century), Canberra, New Delhi, and many many others, all predating Brasilia. Brasilia isn't unique in that sense.

[@faraco1000]

The "rest of the DF", as you name it, is really what they are, the rest. A natural consequence of a modern planning utopia, made by ideologists and lived by bureaucrats.

[@WTFTVactivism]

this is bullshit. brasilia is an awesome city, and i say that because ive lived in new york, brasilia, and australia, and brasilia is still an awesome place to live.

[@gregoireearl3499]

Arrogant speaker who certainly stills think that small britain is an empire. My first visit to Brasilia was 2 years ago, after a 4 months holiday in Japan, I was afraid of my 5 weeks vacation because of what was said about the city. All was wrong, Brasilia is a magnificent city, and if not as clean as Osaka, it is much better than greedy London or derelict Manchester. I am slowly feed up with those English idiots whose speak about things they don't know.

[@colinsmith1176]

What's so awesome about it? There are no sidewalks, no street life. It seems like a bunch of islands of residences and shopping malls.

[@TransientVisions]

@@gregoireearl3499 - FYI - Robert Hughes was Australian, not 'English'. He was based in New York where he served as TIME magazine's art critic for over 30 years.

[@stereo123]

This the weirdest and most manipulative video of my city I've ever seen. It's not like I'm Brasilia's biggest fan, but it doesn't show anything that has to do with how people really live here. How can a smart dude like Robert Hughes participate in such a fraud? It's like shooting a documentary about New York City entirely in Central Park and saying the whole city is a big woodland and every citizen spend all their time jogging around.

[@samuelelsby1800]

Gabriel M Try this one instead: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4ukeHWagrScY80

[@jardim23]

@@samuelelsby1800 that video is cringy

[@TransientVisions]

The video was produced 30 years prior to your circa 2011 comment...

[@stereo123]

@@TransientVisions That's a fair point. I think back then my tone was too harsh, but I stand by the gist of it. I was born in 81 and both sides of my family had been there for two decades by then. Studying, working, living ordinary lives. I'll watch the segment again.

[@TransientVisions]

@@stereo123 Amazed that you replied to my recent comment addressing a view you expressed 10 years earlier! Thank you for that. Being Time Magazine's New York based art critic for 30 years and working in conjunction with the BBC to produce the 'Shock of the New' series, perhaps Robert Hughes felt his harsh assessment of Brasilia was bringing critical objectivity to a massive state project that had received too much praise in his view: "Brazilian architectural critics dare not say anything against it and it's so far away that other critics have never actually seen it." "What Brasilia became in less than 20 years, wasn't the city of tomorrow at all, it was yesterday's science fiction. Nothing dates faster than people's fantasies about the future." It's ironic to hear Hughes' harsh words 40 years later, the dated views of a visiting outsider who likely spent very little time in Brasilia when he was there in 1980 and whose focus was primarily on its architecture and design elements, with no mention of the city's inhabitants or way of life. Mais um motivo para agradecer a você por contribuir com sua própria perspectiva como um residente de longa data de Brasila nos comentários! Legal!

[@iguana1564]

Hard to disagree with a word of what Hughes says: Brasilia is not a place built for human beings.

[@ajs41]

It's beautiful to look at in this film, and was probably an interesting place to be in for the first few years when it was new.

[@Mboy3190]

music plz :) thx

[@bazem]

"Into a jungle?" Sorry but there was no such thing there, the original vegetation is cerrado, more like a savannah. During the military dictatorship the economy was wrecked and the city got that abandoned look, shown in this episode. Today it has big trees everywhere and lots of bigger buildings in that brown areas. I've been there dozens of times, it's hard to be a pedestrian or biker there, now everyone has a car and the traffic is terrible. But still looks like a good place to live.

[@ChoiceCITYS]

the complex tasks demanded of computers today

[@faraco1000]

Give me a break. I'm Brazilian. You are a theoretical nonsense. Brasilia is a land designed not to have people. It is designed for the rest of the country watch it from TV. It is impossible to walk there. It is impossible even to carry a demonstration there. It is truly a fascist city. Before saying bullshit, try visiting Brasilia's neighborhoods by bus: Taquatinga and Candangolandia. So we can start talking about that.

[@WTFTVactivism]

have you been to the wings....

[@marcelocastro5037]

This reporter had to go to his country to see the horrible problems that exist there in the place of giving complete wrong informations. WHAT A SHAME!

[@jeh14]

I was there about a year ago, in the "international corporate" sector. Didn't look much like a forest to me. And I saw crumbling concrete everywhere. Sad.

[@Zocky73166]

standard british arogance

[@serradagua]

he was telling the truth man.

[@TransientVisions]

@ Role - Robert Hughes was Australian. He lived in the US and was based out of New York City, where he worked as TIME magazine's art critic for over 30 years.

[@frobinson6876]

Pretty selective photography and a dishonest description of what Brasília is like. It's actually a lovely city, great to live in, brilliant for cycling, trees everywhere, lots of birds and marmosets. In many ways a much more liveable city than Rio de Janeiro (and I should know, I moved from Rio to Brasília for lifestyle reasons). Robert Hughes was a something of a pompous windbag. Some of what he had to say was worth listening to, but meaningless sentences like "thinking in terms of space rather than place" show that he was prey to the feeblest rhetorical device: rhyming. He wanted to make a point in this segment and did so, but did so at the expense of honesty and detachment.

[@NorceCodine]

Are you Brazilian? I'd like to move to Brasilia, I don't know if there are a lot of hurdles for foreigners in terms of visa etc.

[@ajs41]

This was filmed in about 1979 or 1980 so it's a bit unfair to compare it to Brasilia today.

[@eedgelord1471]

You are either crazy or dishonest, Brasilia is horrible, inaccessible, unfriendly to pedestrians, and cycling there is worse than cycling in Rio or SP, considering these cities are 100 times bigger than Brasilia.

[@frobinson6876]

Unlike you I have lived in Rio, São Paulo and Brasília and have got around all three cities by bike. It is completely obvious that Brasília is the only of these three where biking is pleasant or viable (putting aside the few stretches of Rio's South Zone where some money has been spent on decent cycle-lanes). Personally, I would rather ride a bike well away from traffic and along a tree-lined cycle-path than on a painted strip next to a bunch of unpredictable cars, and Brasília is the only city in Brazil where you can do that almost anywhere. Of course, if I were just a car-driving moron like you are I would wander around spouting off comments about things of which I have no experience. But, happily, unlike you, I am not a complete idiot.

[@TransientVisions]

@@frobinson6876 I've been to Brasil a few times in recent years, but not to Brasilia (yet). Thank you for your interesting points and insights. As a cyclist, good to know! I've just watched this clip from 1980 (made over 40 years ago) on Brasil's Independence Day (Sept 07 2021). Side note: Your brutal take-down of edgelord1471 at the end was a bit much.

[@wanderlimaga]

Just like New York today with monster rats and old stile cracking a part and a lot immigrants and unhappy people...

[@jepperiiiiiii]

gg

[@jeh14]

I was there a couple of years ago. It wasn't a forest. Didn't look especially fabulous either. Lots of concrete, too much of it crumbling.

[@JCarlosCS1221]

What? I think it is a great city, and I bet many people are happy to live there. Thumbs down for you.