The 65 years of Brasília

The idea of moving the capital of Brazil to the interior of the country dates back to the colonial period. Since the first Republican Constitution of 1891, there was a provision for the change of the federal capital to a more centralized region, in a gesture that aimed not only at political decentralization but also at a symbolic and strategic way of integrating the national territory.

But it was only in 1956, under the government of Juscelino Kubitschek, that the idea came to fruition, as part of his ambitious Goals Plan — the motto “fifty years in five” promised to boost the country's development, and among the goals, Brasília was the central piece.

From the perspective of engineering, the construction of Brasília was an almost superhuman feat. The city was built in record time: less than four years (1956–1960), in the middle of the Cerrado, a region practically unexplored until then, far from the main urban centers.

The Novacap (Urban Development Company of the New Capital) was created specifically to manage this mega-project. Trucks, tractors, drills, and tons of concrete and steel were brought to a place with no infrastructure. More than 60 thousand workers — the candangos, as they became known — came from various parts of Brazil, especially the Northeast, to work on the construction of the city. These workers faced harsh conditions and, ironically, many of them never had the right to live in the city they helped build.

This is a fundamental — and often silenced — part of the history of Brasília: the lives of the candangos, the workers who literally built the capital with their own hands. Without understanding this social dimension, the epic of Brasília's construction remains incomplete and overly romanticized.

The term “candango” came to designate the thousands of men and women who migrated from poor regions of Brazil, especially from the Northeast, to work on the construction of Brasília. They were drawn by promises of jobs and a better life. They were masons, carpenters, helpers, cooks, laundresses — simple people, often illiterate, who traveled in old trucks or makeshift vehicles, enduring long and precarious journeys.

It is estimated that more than 60 thousand people directly participated in the construction of the city — but this number is much higher if we count families and those who remained to live in the surroundings.

The reality that awaited them in the Central Plateau was very different from the official propaganda. When they arrived, there was almost nothing: the vegetation of the Cerrado dominated the landscape, and everything had to be improvised. Workers lived in improvised camps, made of wood, tarpaulins, and zinc, with minimal hygiene, lighting, or ventilation conditions.

The workday was exhausting: 10 to 14 hours a day, under the scorching sun of the Cerrado. Red dust invaded eyes, noses, and lungs. Accidents were frequent and often fatal — the use of protective gear was rare. The construction advanced at a frantic pace, driven by Juscelino's political pressure to inaugurate Brasília by 1960.

Salaries were low and were often delayed. Food was scarce and repetitive: rice, beans, flour, and a little meat, when available. Many fell ill and received no dignified medical care.

Brazil already had labor legislation since the Vargas Era (CLT, 1943), but it was rarely applied to the candangos. The majority of the workers were informal. A large part was hired by contractors or by “middlemen” — intermediaries who outsourced labor precariously and exploitatively.

There were no guarantees such as: formal employment registration; vacation; thirteenth salary; FGTS (created only in 1966); and retirement. Many ended their lives without ever being able to retire or even prove that they worked on the construction of the capital. This created a generation of neglected elderly people forgotten by the very State they helped build.

The Brasília project was entirely designed to accommodate an administrative and political elite, with wide, organized, monumental spaces. However, there were no housing provisions for the workers. As soon as the works were completed, the candangos were "pushed" out of the Pilot Plan — and the government began to build the so-called satellite cities, initially as makeshift settlements.

Taguatinga (1958) was the first. Then came Ceilândia, Sobradinho, Gama, among others. These regions — distant, lacking infrastructure, and far from the center of power — became the true home for most of the population that made the city rise.

Despite being the real protagonists of Brasília's construction, the candangos were for a long time treated as extras in the official narrative. Only recently did they begin to receive some symbolic recognition — with tributes, museums, memorials, and oral accounts being recovered by researchers and historians.

But, in concrete terms, many continue to be marginalized, and their families still face the effects of historical abandonment: living far from the centers, with difficulties in accessing health, education, and quality transportation.

"Brasília was built with a lot of sweat, a lot of calluses, and little reward. The palaces shine, but the dust remained with the people who built them."

The “exodus” to Brasília was not only physical but also symbolic: thousands left their roots in search of opportunities and saw the new capital as a promising future. However, the social structure of the city ended up being highly segregated — the candangos were relegated to the “satellite cities” (today, administrative regions like Ceilândia, Taguatinga, etc.).

Architecture and urban planning

Brasília is one of the few examples in the world of a totally planned city before being built — and perhaps the most emblematic.

The urbanism was entrusted to Lúcio Costa, who won a competition with the famous project of the “Pilot Plan”, in the shape of an airplane or a cross (there are divergences regarding the symbol). The architecture was left to Oscar Niemeyer, a disciple of Le Corbusier, but with an absolutely unique language: curved shapes, exposed concrete, and monumentality.

The Pilot Plan

In 1957, Juscelino Kubitschek's government launched a national competition to define the urban project of Brasília. Lúcio Costa, already a figure of prestige and one of the greatest defenders of modernism in Brazil, submitted his proposal almost as a sketch. With simple and almost spontaneous strokes, he presented the famous “cross design” (which many interpret as an airplane), composed of two main axes:

• Monumental Axis (horizontal): concentrates the administrative, political, and cultural buildings of the city.

• Road Axis (or Residential Axis) (vertical): where the residential superblocks are located.

He wrote, in attachment to the project, a descriptive memorial that was decisive for winning the competition. There, he advocated for a functional, modern, rational city, inspired by the principles of Le Corbusier's urbanism, but also Brazilian, set in the Cerrado, designed for the future.

For Lúcio Costa, the city was not just a set of roads and buildings: it was an idea, a manifesto about modern Brazil. He believed that architecture and urbanism could transform people's way of life. Therefore, he structured Brasília with:

• Residential superblocks: large organized blocks, with schools, squares, commerce, and integrated green areas.

• Functional zoning: specific areas for housing, leisure, work, and public administration.

• Smooth vehicular mobility: without traffic lights, with expressways and planned overpasses.

But his plan was also criticized for being exclusive, as it prioritized automobiles and did not foresee popular housing in the urban center.

Oscar Niemeyer

While Lúcio Costa planned the fabric of the city, Oscar Niemeyer was responsible for the public buildings, the architectural face of Brasília.

Niemeyer was Juscelino's preferred architect and had already worked with Lúcio on previous projects, such as the Ministry of Education and Health in Rio (now Capanema Palace). In Brasília, Niemeyer had creative freedom to develop a unique style, which combined modernist ideals with his own visual poetics.

What marked his architecture was: the use of reinforced concrete to create bold curves and fluid shapes; the dialogue with open space, the landscape, and the horizon of Brasília; a search for monumentality, lightness, and symbolic expression.

Most emblematic works in Brasília

• Palácio da Alvorada (1958): the official residence of the president, with thin and elongated columns.

• National Congress: two towers flanked by inverted domes (Senate and Chamber), one of Brazil's postcards.

• Palácio do Planalto: seat of the Executive, with the use of pilotis and water mirrors.

• Federal Supreme Court: straight lines and imposing columns.

• Metropolitan Cathedral: an expressionist masterpiece with 16 curved columns that open to the sky, like hands in prayer.

The marriage between Lúcio Costa's rational urbanism and Oscar Niemeyer's sculptural architecture made Brasília a city without parallels in the world. Both were committed modernists, disciples of Le Corbusier in a sense, but also profoundly Brazilian, embedding a utopian vision of nationhood in the dry landscape of the Central Plateau.

Lúcio gave the order. Niemeyer gave the emotion.

While one thought about the logical layout of daily life, the other created buildings that expressed ideals — of democracy, progress, faith. Brasília is a rare case where architecture and urbanism merge in the same national gesture.

The legacy

• For architecture, Brasília is a world reference of modernism and an urban art piece.

• For engineering, it was an unprecedented and historic logistical challenge.

• For politics, it is an ambivalent symbol: both of the developmentalist dream and of the disconnection of power from the people.

And for the Brazilian people, it is a city that still seeks to balance the ideal and reality.

In the journalistic and political field, Brasília was also a symbol of the promise of a new country. The transfer of the capital from the coast to the interior was seen as a way to reaffirm sovereignty over the vast national territory. Media vehicles, skeptical or hopeful, closely followed the epic. The construction of the city was heavily reported in the media of the time, being a spectacle of engineering, architecture, and power.

However, the project was also the target of criticism: it was a “pharaonic delusion,” cost a lot, created inequalities, and ignored urgent problems in traditional capitals like Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Moreover, for many, the capital change also served to isolate the political elite from popular pressure and urban strikes in the southeast.

World Heritage

In 1987, Brasília was designated as a Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO — it is the only city built in the 20th century to receive this title. Its urban and architectural project is considered a masterpiece of modernism.

But the city is also marked by contradictions: envisioned as democratic, it ended up being deeply unequal; planned for cars, it is today one of the greatest symbols of spatial segregation and difficulty of mobility for pedestrians and cyclists. Still, Brasília remains a living monument to the dream of modernity and the creative and constructive capacity of Brazil.