BRASILIA: Conception and Resolution
Travel Research funded by LT Shanks Travel Scholarship
​2014

The dichotomy between conception and resolution are often challenged in the field of urban planning. The vision of an architect or a planner is not fulfilled with what is realized. Thus, the resolution is unplanned and unexpected. Those circumstances can result in either growth of the unintended planning or abandonment of the city. LT Shanks Travel Scholarship awarded me to travel to Brasilia for one-week research, studying the result of the Pilot Plan. The research documents the display of lifestyle the modern architecture and planning have in the Brazilian society. As a result, the travel focuses on both urban condition of Brasilia and the improvised lifestyle of satellite cities: Taguatinga, Cruzeiro, Ceilandia, Sobradinho, and Planaltina.

Since Brasilia’s construction was compressed from fifty years to five, the city was prone to unplanned factors: housing and infrastructural crisis every Brazilian city faces and manufacturing sectors require to sustain the capital. The satellite cities slowly fill in those roles to reinforce the needs of the city. Due to the lack of housing and infrastructure, inhabitants in the satellites cities depend on autoconstruction. The process where they purchase cheap lots in distant areas of the city without any infrastructure and spent decades building their dream houses and even neighborhoods. Consequently, Brasilia becomes a bricolage of two different ideologies: one utopian and one cultural, seamlessly coexisting adjacent to each other. Slab housing juxtaposed with shanty town, displaying a contrasting lifestyle.