Brasilia: The Capital City Built from Nothing in Three Short Years 

Is this a megaproject? Yes. Should it be on the Megaprojects channel? Probably. But Sideprojects is also about the length and style of the video. It's not the 20 minute deep dive that MP is, but a quicker look at things :).

Built a plane? - Megaprojects Built a car? - Megaprojects Built an entire Moda F-ing city? Sideproject at best

You guys really didn't mention that Brasilia is shaped like an airplane. Kinda disappointed.

When a MIG 29 is considered a Megaproject and building a city is considered a Sideproject 😄

I don't know chief, this looks like a Megaproject to me...

You forgot to mention that Brasilia was designed to look like an aeroplane from the sky!

In New York City there is a building of Oscar Niemeyer, guess what it's. The Plenarium of the see of the United Nations.

This was more of a "Megaproject" than the President's car was - by far.

Oscar Niemeyer’s masterpiece. I visited Brasília a few years ago. It’s absolutely stunning. A must see for fans of architecture.

Greetings! I am a resident of Brasília, more precisely one of the satellites called Ceilândia (understand that the satellite cities here would be like conglomerates of neighborhoods separated from the center, but dependent on this center in a certain way). The problem with the Kubitscheck project is that it did not notice the immense popularity of the project and that it attracted hundreds of thousands of people, and this continued even after the death of the project, since the excess of people has a lot to do with populist policies that made the city swell, to the point of becoming the 11th most populous city in the Americas, and this has serious consequences for public services and, especially, for transportation. But thanks for explaining about the city I live in, I'm tired of having to explain that I don't live in Rio de Janeiro!

I'm sorry if this sounds rude; but this looks like it belongs more on megaprojects.

The president's car is a megaproject, but this entire city is a side project? I love your content Simon but what 😅

It's "São Paulo", not "Sao Paolo" (I can understand your inability to write "ã", but changing "Paulo" to Italian "Paolo" is unjustified. It's also "Álvares", not "Álvarez". He was Portuguese, not Spanish.

There were two extra reasons for Brasilia: - On the military point of view, in a time when ICBMs didn't exist, it is better to have a capital in the middle of the continent, for best protection. - Moving the politicians far away from the people...

It's ironic that the home of one of the slowest things on the planet, government bureaucracy, was built in record time.

I visited Brasilia last year, just before this madness of 2020. Amazing city. I love it so much! Brasil in general is amazing! Even with all of its problems - Brasil is majestic in so many ways. Hope to visit again soon.

Wait, how was this not a megaproject?

Cool video! I'd argue that Brasilia isn't particularly a dead, government restricted city, though. Having lived there myself. There's quite a lot to do and it's very pretty. Also São Paulo is not a coastal city. Close, but it's not exactly on the coast.

Sao Paulo is not a costal city! It’s 60-90km from the sea.

I´m watching this from Brasília, noice!

I actually live in Brasília, born and raised. Just some side notes: 1 - Brasília is a great city to live in. 2 - Our nightlife exists, and it's pretty darn good. 3 - We have lots of museums, art, music and culture. 4 - The architecture makes this city into a living work of art, and just like a painting or a sculpture, you may not like the style, but Brasília is definitely something to see. 5 - The satellite cities are NOTHING like shanty towns, of course there are significant poorer areas, but it's nothing like what you put on the video, it was a really not a good comparison.

I dimly remember seeing a documentary on the construction of this city. The entire place was made of poured concrete. They got variety and the beauty of the architecture from the shapes of the pouring forms. It's almost like Raymond Moriama built an entire city.

While in Brazil you could cover the building of Christ the Redeemer statue, either Mega or Side project.

Por mais que o vídeo seja interessante, há muita desinformação....

This video is amazing, I’m from Brasília and I love when we architecture is recognized for people from another countries 🇧🇷

SO happy and fun to see a lot of fellow Brazilians here *-*♥ (I'm also from Brasilia ♥)

I have a suggestion, why don’t you make a video about the rebuild of Lisbon after the 1755 earthquake

I have never been there, it is on my 'To Do' list. Thanks for giving me a new perspective on the place.

Please be aware that Álvares is not spelled like in Spanish. Great video. Brasília is a beautiful place, unlike any other.

I remember learning it was the capital, but I never knew it was built after I was born. We should teach more about the rest if the America’s in school.

Brasilia foi chamada "A capital da esperança" assim que foi construída. Esse nome tem se mostrado perfeito, por que nós ainda estamos esperando....

Loved the vid! I don't understand, however, why you didn't mention that the city is shaped like an aeroplane. Its true!

I live in Rio de Janeiro, but Brasília is my home town. I am really proud of it. Only those who doesn't know its history and purposes can, unfortunately, deceive or deny its greatness, as a whole modern city built from nothing in 3 years, by men and women like my grandfather and grandmother, an achievement we keep turning real until today. A capital of hope alone wouldn't change a country, but Brasília portrays the dreams and real work from our ancestors, we try to honor them. May Brazil's capital city be more known and its people's value recognized!

Great video, thanks a lot man!

2 fun facts: Brasilia partially inspired the set design of Blade Runner. And it's original design looked like an airplane when viewed from above.

My grandfather was one of the architects in Lucio Costa teams...He lived there for 3 years... Had some really cool stories!

Thanks for the cool video. When I was much younger I would tell my friends that Brasilia was the capital of Brazil and they would laugh at me saying it was Rio de Janeiro. I got the last laugh.

This is so unnacurate, oh god. 1- São Paulo is not a costal city, it sits arround 50km from the sea and 700m of altitude 2- Brazil's government was not formed in 1889, we had been independent from Portugal since 1822 and been a monarchy for arround 60 years 3-Oscar Niemeyer was not the architect behind non public buildings, he projected almost all buildings including the presidents house, office, the national congress, the supreme court, the ministeries etc etc. Burle Marx meanwhile made the landscape design

This was solid, please keep these coming.

I from Brasília, this video is very cool! Thank you!

Hi everyone, I live in Brasília! Congratulations for the accurate of informations! It's perfect!

Brazil built a new capital in 3 years, meanwhile Australia took about 75 years to complete Canberra

Canberra is also a great planned Capitol city to look into as is Washington DC

Wow , that was bitter sweet .

Please check the Portuguese names. Álvares not Alvaréz. São Paulo not Sao Paolo

I'm brazilian and I have lived in Brasília for 18 years. I can say that this is the best description of Brasília by a foreigner that I've ever seen. Of course, more could have been said, but all that was said is correct. Really liked it

My beautifil Brasília 💚💛

I much prefer your business like delivery in this video than when you "try" to be funny. This one full of interesting information, thanks

I have lived in 6 countries (Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Amaterdam, Tokyo, Recife, São Paulo, Brasilia and Cascais/Lisbon-now), and after Cascais, Brasilia has BY FAR the best quality of life for a high medium class family. It’s safe, beatiful, full of nature beauties around and is, compared to those cities, relatively cheap. However, all you said is “bureaucratically” true, but lack the sense of “living” there.

39 seconds after upload, goddammit Simon, I have things to do today! Now I've gotta stop and watch this first.

View time is heavily underrated for this interesting project.

Simon, I know you are feeling a bit piqued by people telling you vehicles aren't megaprojects: but did you really need to switch all the non-vehicle megaproject videos to here? Come on now. If I didn't listen to RU-vid while I worked I'd never have the time for side channels.

Good video 👍

nice composition very good review

Side Projects- NOAA and the extensive weather monitoring infrastructure.

"Build it and they will come" - And be denied access because they're not the rich elite...

Misspelled São Paulo? Check Called it a coastal city? Check Mispronounced José as if it were a Spanish name? Check That’s all in the first 1:30 of the video. We’re off to a great start.

Australia did the whole "build a whole new city for the capital" thing first, we just did it because two cities couldn't decide who should be the capital

Sydney Opera House maybe? I mean, Aussies need some love too, right?

Another aspect often untold unless you know the locals- traffic. Brasilia was built in a time where the 'automobile' was envisioned to be the transport mode of the future, and the urban layout accommodated that. However as times moved on a public transport became more widely used (often due to economically disadvantaged workers in the government buildings), bus systems were implemented but this only created further fluidity problems in the cities transit systems. That central square where the roundabout is? that was turned into a bus terminus to acommodate all the extra public transport needed, and even today, the traffic issues persist. Beautiful city though, and an absolute inspiration for us architects!

Have you covered Walt Disney's original plan for Epcot?

Mga/side project suggestion: Haussmann's renovation of Paris

I thought I was crazy for think Rio was the capital at some point. Thanks Simon!

As a child I was fascinated by Brasilia when it was part of an issue of National Geographic

Hi Simon! Do the Romanian Parlament in Bucharest. It is the 2nd largest building in the world. :)

Hi Simon! Do the Romanian Parlament in Bucharest. It is the 2nd largest building in the world. :)

This narrator absolutely "murders" the pronounciation of Portuguese names by "Anglizing" them without any effort to correctly pronounce them. It is also quite odd that an obvious British gentleman uses waving arms and flailing hands as if swatting away swarms of insects. Why ?

Brasília was built for a single reason: to guarantee the governability of the new president. The previous one had committed suicide, due to the pressure in Rio. City opened in 1960. In 1964, our wonderful American friends represented by their president, Lyndon Johnson, arranged a military coup for us. The original planning of a city for 500 thousand inhabitants was no longer followed. The infrastructure that was supposed to be increased every 500 thousand was never fulfilled.

It's actually pronounced with a Z sound both in English and Portuguese. The closed captions showed Priscilla when he said Brasília haha! It's not officially pronounced Bra see lia in English. And in Portuguese it's pronounced Brazee lyuh. The r sounds like the American double d in daddy or double t in bitter, better, butter. J and ge, gi in Portuguese sounds like the g in genre and garage or the s in measure, leisure.

Most capitals of the world have a special charm, something touristic that encourages you to buy a ticket with your family or friends and say: Let's go on vacation in this city. France has Paris, England has London, Argentina has Buenos Aires and Brazil has... Brasilia 🤢 There is no charm in this city, although some buildings were designed by one of the best architects in the world. There's no history, it's not touristy and it's all very bland. It's just a den of bandits, starting with the parliamentarians! The Capital of Brazil in the past was Rio de Janeiro. And that's where I should have stayed

Greetings from Brasília !!

Hey as a person born and raised in Brasília I have a few curiosities to bring, simon this is a megaproject please do your research 1 Lucio actually didn't want to win the contest, he was pressure to submit something and just made a sketch of an bird 2 National rock was basically born here 3 Oscar actually planned for the lower class to live in the city, the 400's squares have smallers apartments than the 200's, 100's and 300's which all have three bedrooms apartments or more. But the city where planned for few people and they didn't account for all the imigrants. 4 they made an artificial lake, thinking about entertainment for the citizens 5 Plano piloto, is how this part of Brasília is called, today all of the federal district can be considered Brasília. The city organization is based on the cartesian plane, all the places are called by the position on the plane using North, South, East and West as reference. So a residential square on the north wing (Asa Norte) and on the west side of what would be the X axis is identified as "SQN 301" (SQ means that it is a residential block, N means north of the "Y" axis, and the odd hundreds (100, 300, 500) means west of X)

How many Eiffel towers was nescesary to built Brasília?

How old is this? Brasilia has a great nightlife, thousands of restaurants and tons of shopping malls. It’s a great city with wide streets , no traffic jams and many modern new buildings. Ah, and basically cashless. I love it and it has a great quality of life. October, 2021.

am i actually first? And does that make me Batman?

One of the problems with Brasilia is that it's completely car dependent. Traffic there is insane because it's literally easier to get across town than across the street. It's a prime example of how NOT to design a city.

As someone born and raised in Brasília this video is straight up offensive. Not only it’s extremely superficial, it didn’t touch the main aspects of the city and failed to show how much vibrant amazing cultural life it has. It’s a city passed by many, but those who live there or spent enough time there knows how amazing it is. And in a way it’s better that morons like the guy who made this video doesn’t know much about it, so it remains a unique place for those who know how to appreciate it.

Side Projects, have you done a video on the city of Manaus? That seems a bit more interesting, a city in the middle of the jungle.

Simon really must be going crazy. He forgot about the whole Megaprojects channel

The irony of a RAID- SHADOW LEGENDS ad right in the middle.

Brasilia is a sideproject. Megaptoject would be to get ride of the corrupt and incompetent politicians that plague that capital and change them for efficient and honest ones that would dignify the capital, the institutions and the country of Brazil... ...but sadly that is a project deemed to fail.

Hi, I am an architect and urban planner born in Brasilia and still live here... We don't say 'satellite cities' anymore because its pejorative, nowadays everyone of those cities are like neighborhoods.

Solent forts, 3 small round forts built in the middle of the Solent to protect Portsmouth Naval base from attack. Ones now a hotel

This guy REALLY likes creating various channels)

I keep watching for the one presentation that Simon makes where he doesn’t go off-topic to bash America or Americans.

Research about Cathedral of Maringá, it’s the tallest church in Latin America and one of the tallest in the world, the design inspired by the Sputnik satellite, it’s taller than the London eye and its less than 40 years old

Berlin Airlift side project ?

My entire life I have never heard of Brasilia described as anything but a giant cluster fuck.

You should revise your analysis. Candangos made prosperous lives for themselves and their families, and the satellite cities are not shanty towns, some of them have properties with the most expensive square meters in the country.

Could you do a video (Or two) on the new towns in the UK? E.g. Milton Keynes, Cumbernauld, Glenrothes

This channel has exploded out of the gates. Great work Simon, and team!

A mega project segment on the ship Jhare Viking.

1. São Paulo is not a coastal city 2. Car industry pressured to be a priority. Therefore, rail transport is underdeveloped and structural logistics is bad in Brazil.

Poverty, Earthquakes, and cocaine: all you need to know about S. America. (Also, one year Brasil officially ran out of silicon breast implants).

Canberra, the capital of Australia is also a designed city. A competition was held for the design and the chosen one was built - actually, some parts are still being built. The location was set in between Sydney and Melbourne, the two (still) rival main cities in the country.

I live here in Brasília after living abroad for a long time and love it!!

Today we use Brasilia as an example of how not to design a city. The right way is obvious. Pick a plot of land, build the central government buildings, and start auctioning off lots to private developers to figure it out themselves.

Brasilia protrait as na empty shallow for goverment is a major injustice. Brasilia is birth city to many of the most famous brazilian rock bands. Its very developed, and most of the satelite cities around it have a good infrastructure. There are a favelas as most of big brazilian cities, but they are not the majority of the satelite cities. Brasilia has a very cultural force, being the fourth largest city in the country. The reason why Rio and São Paulo are more rich in culture is because they are huge metropolitan areas, old and traditional cities. Brasilia hasn’t been around this long.

O canal começou bem, falando sobre Brasília OBS: São Paulo is spelled incorrectly

You didn't mention the manmade lake Paranoá, which provides water for the city and raises the humidity level in the arid dry season. Also you forgot to mention that it is shaped like an aeroplane. Brasilia is a great place to live, possibly one of the best in Brazil, it has good schools, hospitals, public services and weather. It is true that some of the satellite cities are dangerous, but there are others which are great places to live. Not to mention the close proximity to Chapada dos Veadeiros one of the most stunning national parks in the world! There is a whole host of other nation parks and beautiful tourist cities nearby, such as Pirenópolis. I ♥️ BSB