“Space invaders
New towns are often derided as eyesores. But, arguesOwen Hatherley, they could transform the future, if we save them from the traditionalists
–by Owen Hatherley –MONDAY, 26TH JANUARY 2009
“Yet in terms of notoriety as an example of ex nihilo planning, it pales before Brasilia, the capital largely designed by Corbusier’s Brazilian disciple Oscar Niemeyer. The city center – as illustrated in the huge new monograph Curves of Irreverence – is extremely photogenic, an assemblage of sharp straight lines and sweeping, deliberately feminine curves. Yet Brasilia is usually taken to be an act of sheer hubris, a third world city based on the idea that everyone would own a car, its grid pattern and open spaces an example of humanist rationalism taken to an irrational extreme, with the elegance of the design compromised by the omnipresent traffic. Brazilians have long since reconfigured their blocks of flats to give them the bustling streets denied by the original plan. Brasilia never became the classless capital that the Communist Niemeyer hoped for, and shantytowns sprung up on the outskirts. The architect fled the building site after a military coup in 1964, but even today, he prefers to live in Rio.”
https://newhumanist.org.uk/articles/1982/space-invaders
