Brasília: A Social Architecture

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Brasília needs no defense. Its reality asserts itself above any discourse. As Paulo Leminski wrote in his Catatau: Brasília – the joy of maps.

In these dark times for our country, criticism has resurfaced regarding the untimeliness, or mistake, of transferring the capital from Rio de Janeiro to the cerrado of the central plateau. It is a conformist argument with avant-garde pretensions, attempting to draw a parallel between the dismantling of Rio de Janeiro and the relocation of the capital.

The dust of memory makes us forget the conflicts and revolts surrounding the relocation of the capital from Bahia to Rio, which was also considered a mistake at the time. Along with the move to the new and beautiful setting of Guanabara Bay came the slave-based system and the naturalization of violence implicit in its organization. A parallel can indeed be drawn between Rio-Brasília and Bahia-Rio. Neither architecture nor a new geographical setting inherently changes the way a society organizes or governs itself.

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Cite: Pirondi, Ciro. "Brasília: A Social Architecture" [Brasília: uma arquitetura Social] 04 Jul 2026. ArchDaily. (Trans. Souza, Eduardo) Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1114283/brasilia-a-social-architecture> ISSN 0719-8884
National Archives of Brazil  Via Flickr (Public Domain)

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