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The section of Seeing Like a State about Brasilia left me with the impression that it did not, in fact, work very well. I lived in DC for many years. There wer
by imgabe 4y ago
The section of Seeing Like a State about Brasilia left me with the impression that it did not, in fact, work very well.
I lived in DC for many years. There were people living there beforehand. It's at an intersection of 2 rivers. The original planning has been able to grow and adapt organically since then. But, go try to drive anywhere during rush hour (or anytime really) and ask again how well it works.
It's also worth noting that all three examples are capitals of their respective countries, which is a built-in reason for people to need to live there. The Line doesn't have that, so why are people going to upend their lives and move there?
- piva00 4y agoI'm originally from Brazil and can attest to that: Brasilia as envisioned is a failed project. It moved the capital far away from any population centre making the disconnection between central government and the people much larger. The city was designed with a vision of each city block providing all the basic amenities needed to live in the block: shops, office spaces, apartments, etc. This plan was scrapped by the military dictatorship ending with the city having pretty massive blocks where you need to travel long distances to do anything, it became a nightmare of traffic as it wasn't planned that people would require traveling all the time. Like you mention, the only real reason there's a big population there is due to being the capital, all the bureaucracies of the State reside there and the cascade of employment created by that is basically its whole economy. As a Brazilian there is no reason to visit Brasilia except if you are dealing with the government (or feel like you need to see the capital's architecture for its own sake).