Brasília and its territory: assimilation of english planning principles into the initial plans for satellite towns

Abstract

Appropriation of international models and principles by the urban plan of Brasília is one of the topics within the historiography of the capital of Brazil and has contributed to a broader discussion about possible specificities of the modern movement in the country. However, this discussion has tended to be restricted to the design of the nucleus of the city outlined by Lucio Costa in 1957. The aim of this paper is to go beyond the customary emphasis on the Pilot Plan to analyze proposals for organizing the territory of the Federal District and creating satellite towns between the late 1950s and early 1960s. The analysis points out the peculiar assimilation of a set of English ideas and concepts that were in circulation in the field of urban and regional planning during the first half of the twentieth century.

Brasília; satellite towns; Pilot Plan; urban and regional planning; circulation of ideas