Phenicia Bittar

Temple of Goodwill - Templo da Boa Vontade

by travgran

This very modern starkly white building was created in 1989 by the Legion Of Goodwill as a symbol of universal solidarity. The exterior is made of 7 white triangular planes set on their short end with the points coming together at the top to form a cone and support the largest raw crystal imaginable. Inside is a huge open meditation space. The floor is laid out with a labryinth. From the outside you walk barefoot on a black granite spiral to the center, which is directly under the crystal set at the tip of the cone (rather like the setting of a solitaire diamond in a ring), then your next step is on to white granite where the spiral slowly takes you from the center to the outside. When you have completed your meditative journey you have a drink of energized water. The building exudes a feeling of great serenity.
I recommend a visit for anyone with the time. The architecture is magnificent.
The Legion Of Goodwill organization stresses love as the answer to all problems between people and love of nature as the answer to all our environmental problems.
The photo of the tip called the Temple of Peace is this building.

address 75/76, 915 Sul
take bus 105 or 107 from the city bus station. It is on the far western corner of the southern "wing" of the city, near several huge hospitals. Open 24 hours.

Praça dos Três Poderes-Square of the Three Powers

by hekate

Well, if you are a tourist it is definitly worth seeing the Square of the Three Powers.

What makes it an intersting place to visit is the fact that there you will find the most significant buildings of Oscar Niemeyer’s work that shelter the heart of the Brazil's administration and power:
- Palacio do Planalto - the Planalto Palace (seat of the Republic’s presidency),
- Congresso Nacional - the National Parliament (House of Representatives and the Federal Senate), and
- Supremo Tribunal Federal - the Supreme Federal Court.

There you also find the City Museum, the Nation’s Pantheon, the Lucio Costa Hall, and three sculptures – Pombal (by Oscar Niemeyer), Justice (by Alfredo Ceschiatti) and Os Candangos (by Bruno Giorgi). The Department of Justice and the Itamaraty Palace (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) are located nearby and are also part of the Terrace of Ministries.

REVOLUTIONARY AIRPLANE LAYOUT FOR A CITY

by schurlif

"KUBITSCHEK , NIEMEYER AND MARX"

What do these names tell you..? One Check and two German names..? Well , they are the creators of Brasilia , in its time the most modern and artificially conceived capital of the world. Starting around 1959 on the high plains of then Goias State in the middle of nowhere , then president of Brazil , JUSCELINO KUBITSCHEK ( JK ) gave the starting signal for the construction of Brazils new capital according to plans and ideas that had existed for decades after the place had been earmarked by a monk (DOM BOSCO) as the mystical geographical center of Brazil.... but the planners in Rio de Janeiro from the beginning of the century couldn't have envisioned the art and far out "wild" revolutionary ideas of Kubitscheks two main colaborateurs in this pharaonic enterprise .....

"CREATION AND INAUGURATION OF THE CITY"

OSCAR NIEMEYER , the city planner and building designer who gave Brasilia its form of an airplane with the fuselage area being reserved for government and other public buildings , while the wings of the plane contain the commercial and residential areas.... and BURLE MARX , the landscape artist , responsible for every green spot and pathway through the green in Brasilia and who practically also designed each famous and big park in the major Brazilian cities (Ibirapuera in São Paulo and Flamengo in Rio de Janeiro ). When Brasilia was inaugurated in ( huh... I don't even know for sure..... duuuuh..) 1964 , the whole world applauded . The sensation was perfect.... in about 5 years work , the city had taken it's primary shape and has been the center of architecture lovers from all over the world ever since.
Two other important names from those times : LUCIO COSTA , an equally talented architect and city projector and ISRAEL PINHEIRO , a politician from Minas Gerais ( the state where JK was born ) who was appointed by JK as first mayor of "his " city....

"MY VERY SHORT STAY IN BRASILIA , D.F."

I had just done a wild trip by boat from Manaus to Belem and spent a few days in Para's capital and now it was time to return to São Paulo. So my friend who was travelling with me and I decided that we would take the earliest flight out of Belem and , since we had to change plane in Brasilia anyway , we would take the last flight out of Brasilia to São Paulo and spend the whole day in the nations capital , renting a car , driving around everywhere and looking at everything.....

And so we did more or less because we had no fixed plan..... But in the 9 hours or so we got to get around quite a bit.....

Brasilia

by lichinga

The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate are one beside the other, under the street level and they are surmounted by two "dishes": one upwards and the the other downwards. The tall white palace is the office of the President. The width between the two rows of Ministerial palaces is around 150 metres, leaving an open grass space where any group of people, no matter how big, will always feel lost: the Governement based in Brasilia is immune from people protest (which is also very difficult to organise because of the enormous distances from all the mayor Brazilian inhabited areas).

Brasilia has been built in the Sixties, when the militar dictatorship ruling over Brasil wanted to demonstrate its interest for the expansion of the New Frontier: the attempt of putting their interest beyond the nature's own limits.It should also be noted that the former Government office, based in Rio de Janeiro, were too close to the people rage, to the "influence" of the common sense against the central Government decisions: Brasil has always privileged the benefits of large investors, be them foreign or nationals. It may be said its Constitution defends the power of oligarchy in a more evident way than the individuals' rights, so Brasilia had its roots in a number of justifications.
Since that period, the investements needed to build the new city in a abandoned area of the central high plateau transformed Brasil into a net debtor of foreign capitals.
Brasilia was not left alone: trans-Amazonia roads had also been traced by military men, you may still see them on some maps, bravely crossing the forest in the Northern, Southern and Eastern parts! Once you've noticed them on the map, there's no use in looking for them on the ground: maintenance costs were huge, unsuccessfully trying to stop the power of the Amazon forest regeneration! They've been abandoned for being definitely unuseful.