The Future of a Way of Life

I always advise my Brazilian friends to live in one of the superquadras built during the beginning of Brasilia. They are a model of well-being, with their wide open spaces and good urban facilities, like schools, churches and leisure areas. They are a brilliant reinterpretation, designed by Lucio Costa, of the work of Le Corbusier, influenced in his turn by the Vesnin brothers (Alexander and Leonid), pioneers of Soviet architecture.

The Vesnin brothers created urban blocks which influenced the whole development of international architecture in the 20th century. Their sin was not paying due attention to urban facilities, like leisure and commercial areas. Le Corbusier, in his proposal for the Radiant City, gave more attention to the subject, but without reaching the richness of detail that Lucio Costa envisaged when he designed Brasilia, which can be considered the Modern City par excellence.

Unfortunately the blocks built later do not pay the same attention to their landscape setting and can be considered inferior as urban projects. On the other hand, the idea of using communal spaces does not happen completely in Brasilia. The residents of the superquadras don't use the common areas very much. One way out might be to use them for artistic events.

One explanation for this might be in the homogeneity of the residents of the superquadras. The most dynamic areas in Houston, Texas, in the United States are outside the urban planning zones and mix different ethnic groups and social classes, whites, Hispanics and Negroes. The same happens in London. A high income does not signify, necessarily, a high quality of life. The opportunity to exchange experiences, coming from diversity, is vital in this. In my opinion, the Modern urban model, which functions marvellously well in Brasilia, is weakened by being taken to other places. It does not serve as a paradigm for future cites."