A Temporary Historical past of Brasília’s Satellite tv for pc Cities

The development of Brasília is a major achievement in historical past and structure. The Brazilian modernist motion definitively established Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer as their representatives. It led the modernist metropolis to be examined as the brand new city order. However, the town didn’t emerge alone, nor was it utterly utopic, trendy, or modernizing. Alongside the brand new capital, deliberate and natural neighboring cities had been constructed.

Whereas a contest was being deliberate to outline the architectural proposal for the upcoming capital in 1956, the variety of migrants arriving on the plateau searching for employment and higher residing situations was rising quick. With out an city construction to obtain them, the so-called “candangos” constructed makeshift and irregular camps round building websites. The Cidade Livre, a fancy of commerce and companies roughly 12 kilometers from the place the Plano Piloto could be, served as a assist for Braslia building and commenced to develop organically and quickly with the area’s demographic improve.

In 1958, one 12 months after the competitors, the urbanization firm Novacap started resettling households from Cidade Livre to Taguatinga, the primary official satellite tv for pc metropolis. Positioned 25 kilometers from Brasília, it was deliberate, however building was expedited on account of inhabitants urgency. The justification for relocation was to supply those that constructed the capital with land possession, making certain social well-being and extra dignified housing situations. Thus, even earlier than Braslia, the town of Taguatinga was established in a precarious, improvised, and swift method.

There have been these lands that Novacap bought at reasonably priced costs and installments for essentially the most impoverished purses in order that their patrons may have what they’d by no means get hold of in any other case: a chunk of Brazilian land for the soundness and safety of their households. [1]

The underlying logic of this operation is secular: it separates a sure portion of the inhabitants from the Plano Piloto and refuses the combo of social courses within the metropolis and its public areas. The 25-kilometer distance implies a hindered journey to the so-called “middle” and turns into a disincentive for a portion of the inhabitants to frequent sure locations within the metropolis. This means the supremacy of the dominant order, which privileges related teams. Moreover, the development of Taguatinga occurred concurrently with the venture improvement, with out an try and deliver design and manufacturing nearer collectively. That’s, the “top-down” logic was maintained, as a substitute of joint adaptation and creation between designers and builders.

From 1958 to 1971, the principle satellite tv for pc cities of the capital had been created from related operations of elimination and resettlement of households: Sobradinho (1959), Gama (1960), Núcleo Bandeirante (1961) – the previous Cidade Livre, Guará (1968), and Ceilândia (1971), which is essentially the most populous metropolis within the Federal District. Past identified issues of marginalization of sure neighborhoods or localities, it’s potential to discover some elements of those cities that counterpoint the noble Plano Piloto.

The picture of those cities within the frequent creativeness refers to dysfunction, as they’ve a extra conventional metropolis side. Nevertheless, there have been city plans for them with modernist requirements, resembling sectorization or residential group in superblocks. This hybrid urbanism opens up two views. In a single sense, these cities mock Brasilia’s premises, utilizing modernism with out its aesthetic or moral qualities. In contrast, the inhabitants’s efficiency flexibleizes the deliberate trendy structure, overcoming a few of its perceived disadvantages.

The case of Núcleo Bandeirante is an instance of the resistance of its occupants. Cidade Livre was alleged to be demolished after Brasília’s inauguration, however residents and retailers demanded its regularization and permanence. Arguments indicated displacement relative to the periphery and middle duo. Established in 1956, the Cidade Livre had companies and logistics in place longer than Braslia. Thus, a part of the “central” wants trusted “peripheral” companies. The institutional middle was not the true middle.

Mutual cooperation was bolstered by the granting of heaps within the upcoming cities. Possession had a provisional character till Novacap’s regularization, so making certain the land was via occupation. Thus, precarious constructions resembling shacks continued to happen, albeit removed from the eyes of the Plano Piloto’s first residents.

It’s potential to make a parallel between distance from the middle and social valorizing. Town of Guará was deliberate to obtain workers transferred from Rio de Janeiro. It’s geographically nearer to Brasília than cities supposed for handbook laborers.

This unruly and autonomous operation doesn’t comply with the ideas of the trendy metropolis, though this doesn’t imply it’s disorderly. Cities adjoining to Brasilia had been deliberate, however the actuality was comparatively self-produced. Residents faraway from the capital, with inadequate assist from authorities for the development of their newly created contexts, started to assist one another type these cities. It’s a kind of fissure in trendy tasks. The “dysfunction” of the makes use of and areas of those locations is far more much like urbanity than the anodyne and managed panorama of “listed heritage”.

Metropolis disputes, contributions to the metropolitan advanced, affect and dominance will live on, and the technique of doing so are sometimes thought-about innocent. The naming of those areas clues to their diminutive character to the periphery. Ceilândia, for instance, alludes to the Marketing campaign for the Eradication of Invasions (CEI), with the suffix “lândia” designating territory.

The usage of the phrase “satellite tv for pc” implies a secondary position to a “middle”. Though the expression is utilized in on a regular basis language to outline these cities, a 1998 decree prohibits using the time period to check with any of the cities within the Federal District in official paperwork. Contemplating that the municipal division of the district is given by unbiased Administrative Areas and that a number of of those cities stand out by way of financial, demographic, city and social autonomy, there isn’t any purpose to insinuate that they’re utterly on the mercy of the Plan.

The truth is, these cities overlap with Brasilia. Regardless of being bigger and suppliers for the capital, they’re one way or the other perceived within the widespread creativeness as secondary or excluded, within the shadow of the pomp of the modernist metropolis. It’s not by likelihood. The consolidation of those cities didn’t happen with out its difficulties. Tensions weren’t appeased. Luckily, a cautious look can reveal different methods of addressing the extra hegemonic literature and difficult what is usually mentioned about these cities.

A Brief History of Brasília’s Satellite Cities - Image 6 of 9

Between the trendy city plan and self-construction, between the middle and the periphery, and between order and dysfunction, there’s a sense of unbiased belonging each to Brasilia and Ceilândia, Taguatinga or Guará. There’s pressure between city exclusion and plain inclusion within the historical past of the capital. There isn’t any half with out the opposite. Brasília can be made up of those cities.

References and Notes

[1] BRASÍLIA: Revista da companhia urbanizadora da nova capital do Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: ano 2, n. 20, agosto de 1958.
COSTA, Lucio. Registro de uma vivência. 3a ed. rev. São Paulo: Editora 34/Sesc Edições, 2018.
DERNTL, Maria Fernanda. Dos espaços modernistas aos lugares da comunidade: memórias da construção das cidades-satélites de Brasília. In: Resgate: Revista Interdisciplinar de Cultura, Campinas. São Paulo: v. 27, n. 1, p. 11–34, 2019.
HOLANDA, Frederico de. Dez mandamentos da arquitetura. Brasília: FRBH, 2013.
https://www.agenciabrasilia.df.gov.br/2019/10/31/e-surgem-as-cidades-satelites/ (acessado em março de 2023)
https://www.sinj.df.gov.br/sinj/Norma/33283/Decreto_19040_18_02_1998.html (acessado em março de 2023)