monuments melt into city

06Jan11

A constant phrase in my head while I visited the city was Norma Evenson’s “Chandigarh is a city of monuments, but in Brasilia, the city is a monument.” This was why it didn’t work; why Chandigarh lives and thrives while Brasilia suffers under the ever increasing weight of its newcomers. Strangely though, as I first […]

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brasilia’s commercial islands

05Jan11

Along one side of each superquadra in Brasilia sits a commercial strip designed for everyday shops that would supply the residents of the area. Mirrored in the plan, the commercial edges of neighboring quadra meet to form a commerce street. These streets are offset in every group of four adjoining sectors so that there is […]

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