Monumental Axis

History

The Monumental Axis emerged together with Lúcio Costa's urban planning proposal for the Pilot Plan, submitted to the competition committee for the Pilot Plan for the New Capital of Brazil in 1957. In the justification report, which was considered a decisive factor in his victory, Lúcio describes how he arrived at the design: in item 1, he makes a cross, according to him, a “primary gesture of those who mark a place or take possession of it”. Although the Eixo Monumental is known by the population as the “body of the airplane” due to a popular belief that the Plano Piloto was made in the shape of an aircraft, Lúcio stated in the report that he thought of a cross, and furthermore, the name Plano Piloto was not his creation, being a common term for general plans of modern urbanism.

In the following sections, he curves one of the axes and justifies his choice for it to be the residential axis of the project, leaving the axis that remained straight as the “monumental axis of the system”, calling the avenue by its name for the first time. The two would have opposite and complementary functions: the residential axis would be for everyday, bucolic life, and the monumental axis, as the name suggests, would be for the great monumental palaces, which would symbolize the capital, the institutions and Brazil itself, and would therefore be more open and have a tourist vocation.

After focusing on the details of the road axis, he returns to the monumental axis in item 9, where he describes the ideas for the Three Powers Square, the military and cultural sectors and the Esplanade of Ministries, thought of as a mall - an English term for wide avenues, like the Las Vegas Strip or the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Other inspirations cited in the document are London's Piccadilly Circus, New York's Times Square and Paris' Champs-Élysées Avenue.

Major sites on the Monumental Axis

Proposals for the area

Cultural Complex of the Republic

The complex, which currently consists of two buildings, the National Museum and the National Library, has plans to build a symphonic concert hall, an opera house, an auditorium for chamber music and possibly two other cultural buildings. However, few initiatives to complete the Complex have taken place to date.

References

References

1. Tavares, Jamila. (2011-12-12). "Monumental, Eixo une traço de Lucio Costa às curvas de Niemeyer".
2. Crespo, Raphael. (2023-03-03). "Eixo Monumental: conheça a longa e mais influente avenida do Distrito Federal".
3. Rodrigues, Gizella. (2019-05-16). "Dois eixos e uma cidade única".
4. "Show RBD no Brasil".
5. Gastronomia, CNN Viagem &. "O que é o Eixo Monumental e o que ver na avenida mais importante de Brasília".
6. (2019-06-04). "Avião ou borboleta? Entenda as inspirações de Lúcio Costa para o projeto de Brasília".
7. "Relatório do Plano Piloto de Brasília - Lúcio Costa".
8. "50 anos do concurso para Brasília – um breve histórico".
9. (2015-04-21). "Brasília, 55 anos: conheça os projetos que pensaram a capital do país".
10. "Brasília – Conjunto Cultural da República {{!}} ipatrimônio".