The Experience of Modern Urbanism in the city of Rio de Janeiro

Vera F. Rezende Escola de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade Federal Fluminense - UFF, Brazil

This paper discusses some of the most relevant experiences of modern urbanism which occurred in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, based on the principles approved by the International Congress of Modern Architecture (“Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne”-CIAM). The inception of modern (modernist) concepts began with the visits of Le Corbusier to Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in 1929 and 1936. Several articles published by specialized journals spread the new ideals which were adopted initially in architectural constructions and later in urban planning. The application of these principles, however, was not a simple, short term process. It took place gradually with some adjustments and reveals two aspects of this complex experience: first, the transition from the architectural to the urbanistic planning scale; second, the attempt of surpassing some obstacles put by the modern agenda itself, such as the denial of the city inheritance, followed by the search for a centralizing and vertical urban model. At the end of the thirties and the beginning of the forties some principles of modern urbanism, such as the separation of roadways for vehicles and pedestrians, the concentration in towers and the absence of subdivided lots are not used even in projects, contrary to architectonic principles. In addition, some proposals are directed to the ideal city and not the existing city. The pilotis, the blocks of different heights and the central elements of the “Ville Radieuse” (1934) of Le Corbusier – sun, air, green areas are always present in theoretical proposals or in the projects. As modern urbanism was based on architectural principles, architects became the more suitable professionals for conceiving these projects. Lúcio Costa, for example, one of the most distinguished Brazilian architects, designed in 1960 the new capital of the country and in 1969 produced the Master Plan for Barra da Tijuca in Rio. We discuss the impact of modernist innovation in urbanistic projects in Rio and the adjustments which became necessary for the application of the modernist principles. The paper also examines if, after almost four decades, these projects were successfully integrated into the city and how the city inhabitants are connected to them.

1 An Illustration of International Transference

Among the articles published in the first half of the twentieth century in the main technical periodicals1 of the City of Rio de Janeiro there are many that reproduce examples from other countries in an evident transference process2 of content, within which, from the thirties on, the principles of modernism3 in architecture and urbanism are also transferred. This event may be partly credited to the Remodeling, Extension and Beautifying Plan for Rio de Janeiro, Federal District, the capital of the country, completed in 1930, the authorship of French architect D. Alfred Agache. Even though not being implemented, it stimulates discussion4 on the problems and solutions for the city and contributes to the increase and circulation of ideas by giving examples of other countries.5 In this same decade, World War II and the tension that preceded it is indicated and expressed in published texts, observing that those countries used as examples varied in intensity in accordance with the conflict’s unfolding. As the war continues on, the Brazilian Government’s sympathy transfers from Germany6 to the Allies and the number of examples of urban experiences in the U.S.A. increases, while reference to German cities disappears. Before, during and immediately after the war, urbanism is obligated to provide answers to the protection or the reconstruction of European cities, a concern reflected here in Brazil.7 Questions such as the width of roadways, wind direction and even the dispersion of industrial and commercial activities come to be urban questions linked to security. It is in this environment, favorable to the circulation of other countries’ models, that modernist ideals circulate as well. The Voisin Plan (1925) for the city of Paris by Le Corbusier is presented by Estelita (1934) as a strategy in case of war and the mention of modern urbanism is initiated, connecting it to the defense of cities in case of bombing, An interesting fact, since Brazil is not involved in any risk of war, dealing more with a reflection of European events.

Modernist Principles

“At that time all of us were convinced that this new architecture we were practicing, this new approach, was something connected to social renovation. It appeared that the world, the new society, the new architecture were twins, one thing linked to the other.” This feeling expressed by Lúcio Costa (1987), the placing of architecture as an element essential to social transformation, appears to be shared by Brazilian architects who, from the end of the thirties, become defenders of the principles of modernism, especially in Rio de Janeiro. The ideals disseminated by the International Congress of Modern Architecture (“Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne”-CIAM), after 1928, provide an opportunity to solve the city’s problems for everyone in modern cities and bring a new phase to civilization in which decisions necessary to impose order to cities would be taken in a more rational manner, one of the requisites of the ICMA. The search for this rationality applied to cities is seen as a solution for the problems of Rio de Janeiro, a city which, from 1920 to 1930 doubled its population, reaching 2,380,000 inhabitants. As Lúcio Costa (1962) affirms “ … The New World is no longer to the left or the right, but over us, we need to raise the spirit to reach it, because it is no longer a question of space, but of time, evolution and maturity. The New World is now the New Era, and it is the role of intelligence to retake command.8 The recurring themes of the modernist argument are conquering adepts among Carioca architects and urbanists.9 At the symbolic level, a more just society in which benefits are distributed in an egalitarian manner. At the spatial level, a city structured differently than

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traditional cities: the absence of lots or blocks, the separation of pedestrians and vehicles, where verticalizaton (multistory buildings) is used as a strategy for the concentration of built-up areas with the creation of open areas. Moreover, an urbanism sustained by an architecture realized within rational principles. The model is a centralized city, a metropolis in opposition to a city with its suburbs. Le Corbusier (1937),10 in an article published in Rio de Janeiro, criticizes decentralization schemes: “We, the modern urbanists think that an end should be made to this disaster of suburbs and cities of unlimited extensions with their unrestrained expenses.”11 The transfer of modernist principles to the Brazilian technical ambiance is in grand part due to his visits to Rio de Janeiro, which became the main vehicle for the translation of CIAM ideals for local urbanists. The first visit takes place in 1929, when he goes to the cities of Buenos Aires, Montevideo and São Paulo, the point of entry, where the initial contacts with Brazil occurs, when the famous model (Ill. 1) is made of the viaduct building, cutting the city and when he registers his impressions of the city (Le Corbusier, 1930).

Ill. 1 - Rio de Janeiro, croquis. Le Corbusier, 1929

In 1936, Le Corbusier returns to Rio de Janeiro at the request of Brazilian architects, especially by Lúcio Costa, with the objective of consulting him on the project for the construction of the Ministério da Educação e Saude and the Cidade Universitária. On this occasion it is difficult to remain immune to the enchantment of his ideas that unite architectonic principles and rationally made decisions. He repudiates the proposals of French architect D.A. Agache, who had completed the plan for the city of Rio de Janeiro, because what they represent should be broken with. Le Corbusier’s principles impress those attending his lectures and from then on, architects and urbanists commit themselves to them. Just a short time later, A. Szilard (1936), applies these principles and proposes solutions that seem to be the first demonstration of adhesion to the new values. Le Corbusier (1936), in an article published in a local technical magazine, praises the works undertaken by the ex-Mayor Pereira Passos at the beginning of the century (1904-1908) and positioned him as a possible continuator of an urbanism developed in the twentieth century with roots in Haussmann in the nineteenth century. Regardless of the contradiction of principles between the two forms of urbanism, Le Corbusier uses a language of renewal that announces a new era for the city of Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro is, therefore, the object of a series of formulations of modernist inspiration. At the XI International City Model Fair in 1938, Mayor Henrique Dodsworth’s administration

3 Ill. 2 - Modern buildings, maquette. Comissão do Plano da Cidade, 1938.

presents its urbanization projects prepared by the City Plan Commission. Although a majority of the proposals were related to the opening of new thoroughfares, they demonstrate the usage or construction on lots generated by urbanization of an architectonic typology in series, where there are buildings in a redent pattern, on pilotis and with the opening of free areas (Ill. 2). Modern architecture in series anticipates modern urbanism. Concurrently, the new principles cause the questioning of prior proposals made by D.A. Agache. Architects Affonso Eduardo Reidy (1938) and Herminio de Andrade e Silva (1938) disagree with the proposal made for the Esplanada do Castelo,12 the blocks with internal areas, typical of the academic urbanism proposed by Agache, which, according to them, have deficient ventilation and propose the use of the blocks still unoccupied within the modernist principles, a proposal which comes to prevail from 1938 on. At the end of the thirties and the beginning of the forties, however, some principles of modern urbanism, such as the separation of roadways for vehicles and pedestrians, the concentration in towers and the absence of subdivided lots are not used even in projects, contrary to architectonic principles. In addition, some proposals are directed to the ideal city and not the existing city.13 The pilotis, the blocks of different heights and the central elements of the “Ville Radieuse” (1934) of Le Corbusier – sun, air, green areas are always present in theoretical proposals or in the projects. On the other hand, despite the growing adhesion to new values, difficulties are evident at the end of the forties for the application of modernist ideas to the existing city. A. Szilard (1944, 1950), who, had been one of the first to adhere to the new paradigm, shows the attempt of the local scholars to harmonize the new principles with the reality of the cities. He compares Le Corbusier’s proposals, concentration and high density, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s dispersion and low density, to conclude, that both constitute radical proposals, making it necessary to return to the urbanists who proposed improvements to the existing cities: Patrick Geddes, Lewis Munford

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and Werner Hegemann.14 We find it necessary in this matter to emphasize that, in the post-war period, other factors are also given value by the CIAM and the city is already understood as a complex category, no longer abstract and universal. These ideas come to be shared by architects and local urbanists.

Projects and Realizations of Modern Urbanism

In the thirties, forties and fifties some urbanistic realizations totally or partially incorporated the new modernist criteria. The Avenida Presidente Vargas, Esplanada de Santo Antônio and Cidade Universitária projects are highlighted for their size. The opening of Avenida Presidente Vargas coincides with the consolidation of modernist principles in Rio de Janeiro, although the intent to extend the old Caminho do Aterrado to the sea, dates from the middle of the nineteenth century (Reis, 1977.) The project is re-evaluated15 by Mayor Henrique Dodsworth’s administration in 1938 and an important part of the set of the proposed road works16 is presented at the XI International City Model Fair. Favorable conditions are created for the execution of works in the city of Rio de Janeiro by the concentration of the powers of decision and propitiatory resources by the dictatorship of the Estado Novo,17 Avenida Presidente Vargas comes to be completed due to the joint and harmonious action between City Hall and the Federal Government. This is also about the moment in which the modernist’s ideas begin to show signs that they are being absorbed. At this time the solution appears to be the adoption, including by Agache in 1930, of the already matured roadway design proposal, characterizing it as modernist in the occupation within boundaries or land limits. The project of City Hall’s group of roadway works, united under the mistaken name of City Plan, created by engineers such as José de Oliveira Reis, begins to express the new values, still limited to drawings and building models. At times, pilotis are the single new element. In other representations, the buildings foreseeing pilotis are laid out in redent and create open space(Ill. 3).

Ill. 3 - Avenida Presidente Vargas. Comissão do Plano da Cidade, 1938-42.

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Avenida Presidente Vargas is inaugurated in 1944. Its final occupation demonstrates that its implementation ultimately does not comply with the modernist principles in every part of its extension. In the stretch closest to the Candelária Church, a part where the buildings adjoin one another persists, although with street-level galleries for pedestrians. Harmony is provided by the uniformity of building heights in some stretches which, allied to the width of the roadway, gives the space a monumental characteristic. Still, the Avenida is integrated to the rest of the city center and constitutes a reference point for the city inhabitants. Included, also of the group of works of Commission for the City Plan in 1938, is the leveling of the Morro de Santo Antônio (Farme d’ Amoedo, 1958 and Reidy, 1948), a proposal dating from the beginning of the nineteenth century justified by reason of public health. Although, in the thirties, the leveling plan figured among the intentions of the commission responsible for the City Plan, in 1943, Mayor Henrique Dodsworth18 regrets that it had not been possible to realize it in view of its high costs during the World War II period. In 1941, an alignment project considering the leveling of the morro (hill) is approved, but it will be in the fifties when the works will begin.19 During the forties and fifties the utilization of the Esplanada do Morro de Santo Antônio is the object of various projects,20 one of them, by Saboya Ribeiro in 1941, collaborating with the City Plan Commission, having the same characteristics of modernist architecture in series that anticipates modernist urbanism. However, it is the project by Reidy and Andrade e Silva that amply expresses modernist ideals (Ill. 4). An arterial roadway, with two levels separates light vehicles and pedestrians from heavy vehicles, proposals justified by transcription of excerpts from the Athens Charter.

Ill. 4 - Esplanada de Santo Antônio. A. E. Reidy, 1948

The density, also based on the Athens Charter, is 1000 habitants per hectare – the same as advocated by Le Corbusier for the city of Paris in 1939 – distributed in commercial blocks, some with 26 floors, and a residential strip of 780m and 12 floors high, with the creation of free areas and other lower buildings for recreation. The modernist principles are present, especially the

6 attention to functions – to reside, work, circulate and recreation – a concentration with the creation of free areas, the sun, air and green areas. Nevertheless, the project suffers future changes and the urbanization, which began in the sixties and existing there today, does not correspond to the proposals of Reidy and Andrade e Silva’s project. Besides the absence of the residential function, the diverse buildings raised differ from one another, the whole having lost the character of unity. Although modern urbanism has been capable to be expressed as a project, yet it did not attain complete materialization in this space. As to the installation of Cidade Universitária, this comes to be a concrete intention when the Federal Government decides to unite the various schools in one locale that will compose the Universidade do Brasil. Diverse locations succeed and among these are Praia Vermelha, which already has other public buildings and had already been proposed by Agache in his plan, the Quinta da Boa Vista area and finally, the archipelago of Fundão. In his second visit to Rio de Janeiro (1936), Le Corbusier also dealt with this matter which is one of the reasons for his coming. In 1935, Piacentini, Mussolini’s architect, had already been here to study the question which, according to architect Lúcio Costa,21 had made the request for Le Corbusier’s visit difficult. Le Corbusier prepares a study developed by Lúcio Costa, Reidy and others, which ends up to not be accepted by the General Commission of Professors. The Commission makes objections to various technical and economic questions, among these, the provision for general air conditioning, besides the invasion of part of the Quinta da Boa Vista park area. In this same year, Lúcio Costa, Reidy and Jorge Moreira, among others, further prepare another project in which some of the criticisms made to the Le Corbusier study are corrected, which also did not go ahead. From the end of the forties, new projects are prepared for the archipelago of Fundao in which Lúcio Costa and Reidy still collaborate, but finally, the responsibility for the design and execution went to the Technical Office of the University headed by Jorge Moreira (Ill. 5).

Ill. 5 - Cidade Universitária. J. Moreira, 1952.

7 All the proposals made after Le Corbusier’s visit include various modernist principles: the concentration/verticalization with the freeing of open spaces, green areas, the absence of subdivided lots and the continuity of the terrain and, moreover, the inseparability between architecture and urbanism, that is, architecture as a principle base of support for an urbanistic project. However, since the 1936 project, the intention of the separation of pedestrian/vehicle circulation in the Le Corbusier study is abandoned. The results of the implementation of the modernist project in the leveled area of the Morro de Santo Antônio as well as the Cidade Universitária evidence the fragmentation caused in the city by the application of the principles that inspired them. The two cases deal with expansion areas. One gains by the leveling of a hill, the other by a landfill of a group of islands. In both cases, however, modern urbanism appears to have caused the discontinuity of the urban tissue, a most evident fact in the case of the Esplanada de Santo Antônio because it is located next to the old historic center. This, with its typical subdivision in small sized lots and adjoined buildings, differ in form, function and usage of the grand area, the purpose of the modernist project. In the old center, streets and sidewalks are used intensely by pedestrians and commerce has an important role: in the modernist space – where walkways are not clearly defined and buildings are distant from one another – few are the pedestrians who venture to cross them, choosing other ways. In addition, there are no stores, just head offices of large companies in multistory buildings.

Modern Urbanism Materializes

Concrete manifestations of modern urbanism in our city are gradually felt from the forties on, demonstrating that the ideas of the published texts produced in the thirties needed to be better assimilated before their production. Along the thirties and forties, architects, specifically those committed to modernism define and consolidate a project field within the greater field of urbanism, which in previous decades was occupied by the engineer-urbanists (Leme, 1999). The flow of the modernist movement increases and consolidates the contribution of architects. While during the thirties and the beginning of the forties, engineers are responsible for the urbanization of diverse districts in which emphasis is found in the definition of the road system and city squares. The more adequate professional for urbanization projects in the forties and fifties is the one who has command of the modernist referential, mainly upheld by architecture, such as Reidy and Lúcio Costa. In this process, the fulfillment of Lúcio Costa’s project for Brasilia, Brazil’s new capital and its inauguration in 1960, function as a milestone. Through architecture, also, the concrete introduction to modern urbanism occurs in our city. Despite the good reception of Le Corbusier’s lectures in 1936, some of his proposals, such as the absence of lots and squares, the separation of pedestrian/vehicle circulation are of difficult execution. Architectonic principles are more easily fulfilled through isolated constructions such as the Ministério da Educação e Saúde (1936), a creation of a group of Brazilian architects,22 is an example accepted for its beauty and its qualities of ventilation and illumination. oncurrently, along the thirties, while the new principles are being assimilated, as we saw, the Agache Plan is put aside. We must not forget, although it is not the purpose of our analysis, that there are two other obstacles that hamper academicism and modernism. The first is in regard to the transformations, in the sense to weaken the then dominant academic current, proposed by architect Lúcio Costa, when director of the Escola de Belas Artes, the institution responsible for the teaching of architecture (as in other countries, the teaching of architecture

8 in Brazil began associated with the teaching of plastic arts). He becomes director, unsuccessfully tries to change the teaching and ends up leaving some months later. The second is in respect to a competition for the Ministério da Educação e Saúde project, whose winning project with academic characteristics ended up being substituted23 by a modernist project of the Brazilian team of architects, from a layout by Le Corbusier for another plot. Finally, in 1969, the plan for the Baixada de Jacarepaguá, the creation of architect Lúcio Costa, is an opportunity that modernism has to materialize in an expansion area of the city, ridding itself of the difficulties imposed in areas already subdivided and built-up. At the time of its preparation, after the inauguration of Brasilia and part of the Esplanada de Santo Antônio, the modern urbanists had already incorporated some criticisms as to a certain functional rigidity or to the brutish presence of the architecture.24 This fact, allied to the beauty of the site appears to contribute to Lúcio Costa’s choice for the enhancement of the landscape aspects, a concern already present in the author’s other project for the Parque Guinle residential development. The result is a plan – we are not referring to the results of its implementation – in which modernism bows to nature, to retrieve, in a certain manner, the impressions left by Le Corbusier upon his visit to the city in 1929.

9 Bibliography

ALMEIDA, P. C. (1939). “Projeto de Remembramento do Centro do Distrito Federal” Revista Municipal de Engenharia, Rio de Janeiro. ALVES DE BRITO, H. (1944). “Obras da Avenida Presidente Vargas” Revista Municipal de Engenharia nº 3 e 4. ANDRADE E SILVA, H. (1938). “Estudo do Metropolitano no Rio de Janeiro” Revista Municipal de Engenharia. Comissão do Plano da Cidade. (1943). “O plano Diretor” Revista Municipal de Engenharia nº 3. COSTA, L. (1926). Sobre Arquitetura, Porto Alegre. COSTA, L. (1987). “Presença de Le Corbusier” Revista Arquitetura, Rio de Janeiro: FAU/UFRJ. COSTA, L. (1995). Registro de uma Vivência. São Paulo: Empresa das Artes. DODSWORTH, H. (1943). “Problemas da Cidade” Revista Municipal de Engenharia nº 1, pp. 5-7. ESTELITA, J. (1934). “A visão da guerra e a sua influência na estrutura das novas cidades européias” Revista da Diretoria de Engenharia ano II, nº 8, p. 9-13. ESTELITA, J. A (1933). “Rússia e os seus problemas de urbanismo” Revista da Diretoria de Engenharia ano II, nº 5. FARME D’AMOEDO, F. (1948). “O Desmonte do Morro de Santo Antônio” Revista do Clube de Engenharia. GODOY A. (1932). “Duas cidades industriais modelares” Revista Municipal de Engenharia, ano I, nº 2. HELLMEISTER, U. (1947). “Habitações Populares” Revista Municipal de Engenharia pp. 136-44. LE CORBUSIER, (1930). Précisions sur un état présent de l’architecture et l’urbanisme. Paris: Éditions G. Grès. LE CORBUSIER. (1936). “Le Préfet Passos”, Revista da Diretoria de Engenharia nº IV, pp. 243-4 LE CORBUSIER. (1937). “O problema das favelas parisienses” Revista da Directoria de Engenharia nº IV, pp. 284-6. LEME, M. C. (1999). “A formação do pensamento urbanístico no Brasil, 1895-1965” In Urbanismo no Brasil 1895-1965, São Paulo: Fupam / Nobel. LIMA, A. C. (1947) “A Cidade Industrial” Revista de Arquitetura nº 77 ano 12, pp. 22, 25, 32. PASSOS, E. “Melhoramentos do Rio de Janeiro” Revista do Clube de Engenharia nº 73, pp. 03- 22. PENIDO, J. A. M. (1937) Urbanismo e tráfego. Revista da Diretoria de Engenharia, Rio de Janeiro, nº 1, pp. 31-37. PEREIRA, M. S., SANTOS, C. R. et al. (1987). Le Corbusier e o Brasil, São Paulo: Tessela/Projeto. REIDY, A. E. (1938). “Urbanização da Esplanada de Castelo” Revista Municipal de Engenharia, pp. 604-7. REIDY, A. E. (1948) “Estudo de Urbanização da Área Resultante do Desmonte do Morro de Santo Antônio” Revista Municipal de Engenharia. REIS, J. O. (1977). O Rio de Janeiro e seus prefeitos. Rio de Janeiro: Prefeitura da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro. REIS, J. O. (1994). “50 anos da Avenida Presidente Vargas” Revista Municipal de Engenharia. REZENDE, V. F. (1982). Planejamento urbano e ideologia, quatro planos para a cidade do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira. REZENDE, V. F. (2000). “As Transferências Internacionais e o Urbanismo Modernista na Cidade do Rio de Janeiro” In Anais do Seminário de História da Cidade. Natal – Rio Grande do Norte (2000). S/ Autor. (1938). “Uma cidade de 1960” Revista de Arquitetura ano 4, nº 37, pp. 16-7. S/ Autor. “Plano de Melhoramentos da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro” Revista Municipal de

10 Engenharia nº 6, pp. 314 a 334. S/Autor. “A Secretaria Geral de Viação, Trabalho e Obras Públicas na XIª Feira Internacional de Amostras” Revista Municipal de Engenharia nº 6, pp. 670-693 SABOYA RIBEIRO, J. O. (1943). “Os Núcleos Residenciais do Futuro” Revista Municipal de Engenharia nº 4 (1943) pp. 225-9. SZILARD, A. (1936). “A margem das conferências de Le Corbusier” Revista de Arquitetura e Urbanismo, Rio de Janeiro, ano I, setembro e outubro, pp. 165-179 SZILARD, A. (1943). “Cidades de Amanhã” Revista Municipal de Engenharia nº 3 (1943) pp 161-6. SZILARD, A. (1944). “Projetos Regionais” Revista Municipal de Engenharia nº 1, pp. 17-20. SZILARD, A. e REIS, J. O. (1950). Urbanismo no Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro: Ed. O Construtor. YANNIS, T. (1998). “A autoridade CIAM, universalismo e internacionalismo” in Le Corbusier - Rio de Janeiro, 1929-1936. Rio de Janeiro: Prefeitura da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro.

11 Notes

1 This article is a result of the research “Documental Survey of Urbanism in Brazil, 1900-1995, Sub- Project Rio de Janeiro,” which proposes to register and interpret articles, projects, plans and the activity of urbanists in the city of Rio de Janeiro and is a part of a research network of eight Brazilian cities. 2 We are aware of the difficulty of the naming of this process. Concepts such as circulation, transference and resonance attempt to cope with this difficulty, the latter concept conferred the characteristic of a two-way process of model transference. 3 We utilize in this paper the designation “modern urbanism or urban design”, in reference to an urbanism conceived within “modernistic principles”. “Modern is correct. Modernist has a pretentious air and questionable meaning. It seems that which was done before is being opposed, the tradition, to make something obsessively modern. I do not see the difference.”Lúcio Costa interview, Folha de São Paulo, 23/07/95. 4 This occurrence came to be recognized by the Mayor, Henrique Dodsworth (1943), upon stating that the plan: “had repercussions in the heart of the Academies and Technical Associations, awakening curiosity, interest and a taste for urban things.” 5 Those that standout are Armando de Godoy (1932), who writes about industrial cities in the U.S.A. and Russia, José Estelita (1933), who publishes on socialist and linear cities according to the plan of Arturo Soria Y Mata (1844-1920). 6 With the rise of Germany in the pre-war period, the city of Berlin is used as a model, Penido (1937), being prominent and who presents the Olympic Village for the site of the Olympiads of 1936, a propaganda opportunity of German power for other countries. Penido, 1937, pág. 31 a 37. 7 Hellmeister (1947) and Correa Lima (1947) outstanding, who use England as an example. 8 Costa, L. (1962), to the students of Harvard Law School. 9 People native to the city of Rio de Janeiro are called Cariocas. 10 Le Corbusier (1937). The density proposed for Paris by the author is 1000 habitants/ha, six times that of garden cities and three times that of the Parisian city blocks. This study become more precise upon construction of the New Times Pavilion at the Paris Exposition of 1937. 11 Within this line of thought, the Revista de Architetura (1938) transcribes a project for the city of New York written by Norman Bel Geddes in which towers accessed by elevated roadways, separated by wide spaces would accommodate a population three to five times greater than now exists. 12 This deals with the expansion of the Centro area resulting from the leveling of the Morro do Castelo carried out in the twenties. The Esplanada do Castelo projects are prepared between 1928 and 1938 in accordance with the Agache Plan. In 1938 the Alignment Project 3085/38 revokes and modifies the earlier plan. 13 Like the proposals of A. Szilard (1943, p. 225) and J.O. Saboya Ribeiro (1943, p. 161). 14 Patrick Geddes (1865, 1935), dedicated himself to biology and to the study of human activities. Lewis Munford, a disciple of Geddes, critic of Le Corbusier’s ideas and of the great metropolises, was a defender of decentralization. Werner Hegemann (1882-1936) became famous for his campaign for decentralization of Berlin in 1912. 15 Reis (1994) and Alves de Brito (1944). The construction of the roadway, with a width of 80 m results in the demolition of 525 buildings. 16 Among the noteworthy works of the H. Dodsworth administration are Avenida Presidente Vargas, urbanization of the Esplanada do Castelo, Avenida Brasil, Avenida Tijuca, duplication of the Túnel do Leme and the Corte do Cantogalo. Roadways are designed together with Avenida Brasil, among which is Avenida Diagonal, cutting the leveled area of the Morro de Santo Antônio and connecting Lapa to Praça da Republica. 17 This is the dictatorial period (1937-1945) in which the country is governed by President Getúlio Vargas. 18 Dodsworth, H. opus cit. 19 The beginning is motivated by the site established for the realization of the XXXVI International Eucharist Congress in a landfill area.. 20 PA 3612/41, PA 5028/49 and PA 7214/58. 21 The difficulties of Le Corbusier’s visit is told by Lúcio Costa (1995).

12 22 This group composed of Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer, Ernani Vasconcellos, among others, were inspired by a Le Corbusier study with the same purpose for another plot. 23 According to Gustavo Campanema (Minister of Education and Health at the time): “… after the competition that I, myself, promoted to choose a project, before the visit of Le Corbusier, I ordered to pay the prize to the fist place (Archimedes Memória) with the exception that his work would not be used …” A reproduction of the Minister’s interview given to the Jornal do Brasil, Revista de Arquitetura, Rio de Janeiro, July 1963. 24 It is fitting to remember the impact that the mass built for the Unidade de Marselha (Le Corbusier, 1948) had on Lúcio Costa (1987): “The Ministério da Educação did not have this brutish structure … Thinking and demanding from the designers (in respect to MEC) to reduce the diameter of the pilotis and, suddenly there came enormous pilotis.”

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