LUCIANO MIRANDA //////////// "A Bridge to EQUALITY"
Brasilia was conceived in the 1950s as the ideal capital for a new and modern Brazil that was beginning to be developed. The concepts that were used to plan the city sought to bring development and wealth to the central portion of the country which, up to that point, was composed of small villages and farms. The masterplan of the city was created following Corbusian-Modernist ideals and at first, seemed to be leading to the construction of the “Radiant City†that Le Corbusier had always dreamed of.
However, sixty years after its inauguration, the reality of the city is not the one that was planned by the government and architects in charge of the project.
This research will criticize the aspects of the Modernist architectural concepts that were used to create Brasilia and that led to the creation of invisible boundaries that push the poor out of the city and compare and contrast the architecture employed in the planning of Brasilia with that of other Modern Brazilian architects like Lina Bo Bardi, Joao B. Villanova Artigas, and Paulo Mendes da Rocha, who were able to achieve social justice and mobility through their designs. It will be analyzed if the architecture of Brasilia could be the reason of social division when it should have been a driver for social equality and social education.
The final objective is to prove that the rigidity of the Corbusian-inspired, sectorized masterplan of Brasilia ended up creating another sector, that surrounds the city, and is the home of poor families who can not enjoy the monumental promises of the new capital, and how that rigidity was reinforced by the UNESCO World Heritage Listing awarded to the city. Also, the intention is to find concepts of Modern architecture that could be used to mitigate the enormous social distance that exists between Brasilia and its satellite cities.
The Neighborhood Unit concept creates small cities within cities that can become self-sufficient and free from the dependency of having a centralized downtown area. It allows residents to have education, health services, commercial spaces, police stations, all within walking distances from home. I intend to use that modern concept and merge it with ideas coming from the Brazilian Brutalist movement in order to make it more socially just and bring better living conditions to the people living in the Rising Sun area.
However, sixty years after its inauguration, the reality of the city is not the one that was planned by the government and architects in charge of the project.
This research will criticize the aspects of the Modernist architectural concepts that were used to create Brasilia and that led to the creation of invisible boundaries that push the poor out of the city and compare and contrast the architecture employed in the planning of Brasilia with that of other Modern Brazilian architects like Lina Bo Bardi, Joao B. Villanova Artigas, and Paulo Mendes da Rocha, who were able to achieve social justice and mobility through their designs. It will be analyzed if the architecture of Brasilia could be the reason of social division when it should have been a driver for social equality and social education.
The final objective is to prove that the rigidity of the Corbusian-inspired, sectorized masterplan of Brasilia ended up creating another sector, that surrounds the city, and is the home of poor families who can not enjoy the monumental promises of the new capital, and how that rigidity was reinforced by the UNESCO World Heritage Listing awarded to the city. Also, the intention is to find concepts of Modern architecture that could be used to mitigate the enormous social distance that exists between Brasilia and its satellite cities.
The Neighborhood Unit concept creates small cities within cities that can become self-sufficient and free from the dependency of having a centralized downtown area. It allows residents to have education, health services, commercial spaces, police stations, all within walking distances from home. I intend to use that modern concept and merge it with ideas coming from the Brazilian Brutalist movement in order to make it more socially just and bring better living conditions to the people living in the Rising Sun area.
Artist Statement
The design development of the project went through a series of attempts to incorporate the necessary programmatic buildings, the distance to nearby residential areas, and how far they are from the lacking public services and the relationship to the ravines that act as natural containers of the Rising Sun favela sprawl.
Since the community is composed of low-rise buildings that range between eight to 30 feet in height, it was decided that building a project much taller than those heights would be oppressive and disruptive to the existent urban fabric of the area. Another important aspect that was analyzed in order to define how tall the project would be was the creation of a sense of accessibility. The project should appear to the community as something open and accessible to all. For those reasons, it was decided that all of the programmatic spaces would be primarily accessible through the ground floor and would reach the maximum height of forty feet.
The distribution of the buildings throughout the selected lot followed the logic of creating three different areas: the health care, social services, and provisions area, the educational area, and the leisure and sports area. The health care, social services, and provisions area was placed closer to the residential area so that it becomes more easily accessible, the educational area was placed in the center and faces the main entrance to the complex so that it welcomes people to come in and learn, and finally, the sports and leisure complex was placed facing the ravine so that larger, noisier events won’t distress the community.
Finally, it was decided to connect all of the buildings of the community center through an elevated boardwalk that creates a new ground floor and becomes a processional circulation path that allows the residents of the Rising Sun favela to experience their neighborhood and its natural beauty in a different, special way. The elevated boardwalk peels down in specific areas to create different access points to the buildings, its shape was thought to frame special views of the surrounding nature as well as to facilitate the connection between the elevated ground to all of the three different areas of the community center. Also, the elevated boardwalk in pushed and folded in certain points to create seating and gathering spaces while elevated thirty feet above the ground. Both, the buildings and the elevated boardwalk are connected to new landscaped moments that enhance the experience of the users by concealing and revealing specific moments of the project, create different heights in a site that is basically flat, and allow for the creation of ponds and pools that help to bring humidity to an area that is very dry.
Since the community is composed of low-rise buildings that range between eight to 30 feet in height, it was decided that building a project much taller than those heights would be oppressive and disruptive to the existent urban fabric of the area. Another important aspect that was analyzed in order to define how tall the project would be was the creation of a sense of accessibility. The project should appear to the community as something open and accessible to all. For those reasons, it was decided that all of the programmatic spaces would be primarily accessible through the ground floor and would reach the maximum height of forty feet.
The distribution of the buildings throughout the selected lot followed the logic of creating three different areas: the health care, social services, and provisions area, the educational area, and the leisure and sports area. The health care, social services, and provisions area was placed closer to the residential area so that it becomes more easily accessible, the educational area was placed in the center and faces the main entrance to the complex so that it welcomes people to come in and learn, and finally, the sports and leisure complex was placed facing the ravine so that larger, noisier events won’t distress the community.
Finally, it was decided to connect all of the buildings of the community center through an elevated boardwalk that creates a new ground floor and becomes a processional circulation path that allows the residents of the Rising Sun favela to experience their neighborhood and its natural beauty in a different, special way. The elevated boardwalk peels down in specific areas to create different access points to the buildings, its shape was thought to frame special views of the surrounding nature as well as to facilitate the connection between the elevated ground to all of the three different areas of the community center. Also, the elevated boardwalk in pushed and folded in certain points to create seating and gathering spaces while elevated thirty feet above the ground. Both, the buildings and the elevated boardwalk are connected to new landscaped moments that enhance the experience of the users by concealing and revealing specific moments of the project, create different heights in a site that is basically flat, and allow for the creation of ponds and pools that help to bring humidity to an area that is very dry.
LUCIANO MIRANDA - FINAL BOOK - DEGREE PROJECT
COMPARATIVE RESEARCH DIAGRAM 1 - BRASILIA X CEILANDIA
TIMELINE - CEILANDIA'S EXPANSION
COMPARATIVE RESEARCH DIAGRAM 2 - BRASILIA X CEILANDIA
COMPARATIVE RESEARCH DIAGRAM 3 - BRASILIA X CEILANDIA - FORMAL JOBS