Letter from . . . October 2011
Brutal blueprints
On the architecture of Brasilia.
When I was about ten years old, I used to design cities. It was very easy, and I was surprised that everyone before me had made such a hash of it. I could conclude only that the world had hitherto been populated by fools. At the very center of the city was the parliament building, which was like St. Peter’s but on a bigger and grander scale. Round it ran an eight-lane circular road, from which radiated, symmetrically, six large avenues. How the deputies to the parliament were supposed to reach it—dodge between the traffic, I suppose—was not a question with which I concerned myself. I was designing cities and...
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