Brasília and the possibility of a non-utopian urbanism

Abstract

Contemporary urbanism has the compact city model as a dominant reference, frequently used to disqualify the phenomenon of urban sprawl in favor of a particular way of life and spatial organization considered to be more compatible with current sustainable development principles. This reference to the compact city as well as the criteria of value and validity that it establishes in terms of urban quality refers to the criticism made to the futuristic utopias of modern urbanism by the supporters of a return to the spatial principles of the traditional city as a solution to exponential and dispersed urban growth. Using an analysis of different utopian aspects
of the Plano Piloto project for Brasília, as well as the criticisms that were raised against it, we intend to argue, in light of the concept of retrotopia coined by Zygmunt Bauman, that these same criticisms adopt a no less utopian nostalgic reference. This analysis, fed by the definition of the notion of project itself, leads us to raise a question of the possibility of non-utopian urbanism, to which we respond with a reflection that mobilizes the concept of atopia proposed by Byung-Chul Han.
We then envisioned some clues for the construction of an approach that is less hostage to the utopian trap and to the dichotomous logic that always seems to escape from the present reality, in order to transform Brasilia into a useful reference to deal with the complexity of the discussion on urban form and the challenges inherent to the 21st-century city.