Talk : Martino Tattara - Brasilia and the Project of the City

Built between 1957 and 1960, Brasilia is a young modern capital and one of the few examples of cities built out of a singular and comprehensive urban project. Although recent, many have identified Brasilia as the representation of the failure of the tenets of Modern Movement while others have read the contemporary urban form as the negation of the original scheme developed by Lucio Costa in 1957. Contrary to this understanding, the lecture will reveal how Brasilia has developed as an alternative to the endlessly growing metropolis of South America and offers itself as an alternative urban model to both the contemporary metropolis and the modernist city. Starting from the analysis and reading of the original competition documents, and by observing selected elements of the built city, the lecture proposes an alternative and novel interpretation of the origins and outcomes of this large-scale urban project.