Belo Horizonte, Brazil, South America
Year 1894 latitude: -19° 55' longitude: -43° 56' Period Initiator(s) Planning organization Republic of Brazil Nationality initiator(s) Brazilian Designer(s) / Architect(s) Aarão Reis Francisco Bicalho Design organization Inhabitants 2,375,444 (2010) Target population 200,000 Town website http://www.belohorizonte.mg.gov.br/en Town related links Literature - Borges Lemos, Celina and Jackson, Elizabeth; The Modernization of Brazilian Urban Space as a Political Symbol of the Republic; 1995 In: The journal of decorative and propaganda artsArticle Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1504140 type of New Town: > scale of autonomy New-Town-in-Town Satellite New Town Company Town > client Private Corporation Public Corporation > policy Capital Decentralization Industrialization Resettlement Economic
The idea of relocating Brazilian capitals had its origin in the mid 19th century. The reason for this idea was to make more use of Brazil's rich inland and to develop an alternative for the old, unplanned and chaotic Portuguese cities. The Portuguese colonizers had founded their cities on the coast, putting pressure on the coastal regions and neglecting the natural resources in the centre of the Brazil. After Brazil becomes independent from Portugal in 1822 and becomes a republic in 1889, the forgotten city relocation plan became popular with politicians. The concept offered perspectives for the problem of the uncultivated inland, the problem that the old capitals posed by their lack of spatial organization and housing shortages and the need for a new urban form that could serve as a symbol for the new state and the new politics. The first city that was planned and realized in this line of thought was Belo Horizonte. The decision to transfer the seat of the government of the state Minas Gerais from the mining town Ouro Preto to Belo Horizonte was made in 1894 by the Constitutional Assembly of Minas Gerais. Aarão Reis was appointed as the leader of the building commission and he designed the urban plan for Belo Horizonte. The plan of Belo Horizonte was made to refer to the plan of Washington D.C. and Haussman's Paris. He integrated an orthogonal grid defined by streets, and a diagonal grid defined by avenues, as was done in Washington. Reis made the avenues wide, creating long vistas through the plan, as Haussman had done in Paris. This way Reis gave the city the space and the grandeur that it needed to be able to be the symbol of a new, modern era. Another characterstic of this city is its zoning. The different parts of the grid have different functional and socio-economic infills. From the inauguration of the city the working class for example was not allowed to live in the centre of the city. This zoning later became problematic because Reis did not include enough infrastructure to connect the different zones. Belo Horizonte was inauguarted in 1897 when the first public buildings started to strengthen the message that Reis communicated in his plan. The buildings were being erected in an eclectic architectural style and were placed on strategic points along the avenues to enhance their visibility. Belo Horizonte could be understood as the example for the later Brazilian capital cities Goiana and Brasilia, because Belo Horizonte was the first city that was realized as a symbol for the new state. Therefore, the city was seen as a prototype for the city of the future, the city of the new state. source: Borges Lemos, Celina and Jackson, Elizabeth; The Modernization of Brazilian Urban Space as a Political Symbol of the Republic; 1995 In: The journal of decorative and propaganda arts Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1504140
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