The Zenith Passage of the Sun in the Plan of Brasilia

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1 The Zenith Passage of the Sun in the Plan of Brasilia Amelia Carolina Sparavigna To cite this version: Amelia Carolina Sparavigna. The Zenith Passage of the Sun in the Plan of Brasilia. Philica, Philica, <hal > HAL Id: hal Submitted on 19 Feb 2018 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

2 The Zenith Passage of the Sun in the Plan of Brasilia Amelia Carolina Sparavigna (Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino) Published in enviro.philica.com Abstract In this article we show that the Monumental Axis of Brasilia is oriented along the sunrise direction on the days during which it happens the zenith passage of the sun. This fact could be a mere coincidence. However, since the plan of the town is considered as highly symbolic, this alignment could have been intended as a good omen for the town, to reach the zenith of prosperity and power. Brasilia is the federal capital of Brazil, founded on April 21, The capital was planned by Lucio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer designed its civic buildings, and Roberto Burle Marx was the landscape architect. In 1957, an international jury selected the layout proposed by Costa, in spite of the fact that his plan was not as detailed as the plans presented by other architects. It was chosen by five out of six jurors because it had the features required to align the growth of a capital city" [1,2]. The initial plan proposed by Costa was transformed over time, but most of its features have survived [2]. In [2], the item of Wikipedia is telling that the foundation of Brasilia, as a representation of the conquest of an extensive region in Brazil inspired the symbolism of the plan. In it, Costa used a cross-axial design to indicate the possession and conquest of this new place [2,3]. The cross is made by the two principal components of the plan, the Monumental Axis and the Residential Axis (Figures 1 and 2). The Monumental Axis was designated for the political and administrative activities. For the design of the residential apartment blocks, inspiration came form Le Corbusier s Ville Radieuse of 1935 and from the superblocks on the North American Radburn layout, 1929 [4,2].

3 Figure 1. Brasilia as seen from the International Space Station (Courtesy NASA). Figure 2. Brasilia from Google Earth, oriented as in the Pilot Plan drawn by Lucio Costa. The crossed layout of the town is often described as a dragonfly, an airplane or a bird [1,2]. In the framework of an architectural perspective, the airplane-shaped plan was certainly an homage to Le Corbusier [2]. About the symbolism of Costa's design of Brasilia, we find other information in [5]. There, it is told that in the cross of the town, besides the above-mentioned symbols, some scholars have also found "a reference to the cross of the early Portuguese conquerors, the bow and arrow of the native populations of Brazil, or the jet shape as a symbol for future innovation" [6]. In the case of the bow and arrow, the arrow is the Monumental Axis and the bow the Residential Axis. In both the items of Wikipedia, [2] and [5], it is told that the Monumental Axis "points east to west", but this orientation is not that of the cardinal points of the compass. In the satellite images, the Monumental Axis is forming with the cardinal North-South direction an angle of about 108 degrees. 107 degrees is the angle of the azimuth of the sunrise on the days of the zenith passage of the sun, that is, of those days during which the sun reaches the zenith (Figures 3 and 4). These days are February 5 and November 5 (Brasilia is between the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn, and there the sun has two zenith passages). Actually, the Axis is so large that, if we observe the sunrise from its western end, we can see the sun at the other end of the avenue (see the simulation obtained by means of Google Earth in the Figure 5).

4 Figure 3: Using SunCalc.org, we can determine the zenith passages of the sun. Here it is shown the sunrise direction on February 5 (yellow line). The red line represents the direction of the sunset. The shaded area contains the apparent motion of the sun during the year. Figure 4: A detail of the orientation, from SunCalc.org.

5 Figure 5: Simulation of the sunrise on February 5, observed from the western end of the Axis (TV tower and buildings included). In the tropical zone, the zenith passage of the sun had influenced the ancient architectures [7]. Therefore, we can consider that also the plan of Brasilia was influenced by the sun and its zenith passage. Of course, the fact that the directions of the Axis and of sunrise are so close could be a mere coincidence; however, since the plan of Brasilia is considered as having a highly symbolic meaning, the alignment of the Monumental Axis could have been intended as a good omen for the future life of the town, that of reaching the zenith of prosperity and power. References [1] Epstein, David (1973). Brasilia: Plan and Reality: a study of planned and spontaneous urban development. University of California Press. ISBN OCLC [2] [3] Wong, Pia (1989). Planning and the Unplanned Reality: Brasilia (Master of City Planning, 1988). IURD Working paper series University of California, Berkeley, Institute of Urban & Regional Development. OCLC [4] Deckker, Thomas (2016). Brasília: Life Beyond Utopia. Architectural Design. 86 (3): doi: /ad ISSN [5] [5] Barnitz, Jacqueline, & Frank, Patrick (2015). Twentieth-Century Art of Latin America: Revised and Expanded Edition. University of Texas Press. p ISBN [6] Sparavigna, Amelia Carolina (2017). The Zenith Passage of the Sun and the Architectures of the Tropical Zone. Mechanics, Materials Science & Engineering Journal, 10 (May), Information about this Article Published on Wednesday 14th February, 2018 at 20:33:04. The full citation for this Article is: Sparavigna, A. C. (2018). The Zenith Passage of the Sun in the Plan of Brasilia. PHILICA. Article number 1242.