Comment by diego_moita | Hacker News Reader

Comment by diego_moita | Hacker News Reader

Oscar Niemeyer is a glorified disaster in usability; his buildings are the most wonderful and unusable crap.

I worked for 3 months in a building that is now a museum to his creations: http://www.cliquearquitetura.com.br/portal/blog/view/mon-mus... It basically looks like the scenery from "The Jetsons" cartoons/series. It is cool from the outside but is an horrible place to be inside the whole day.

It's official name was "Castelo Branco" (white castle) but everyone called it "white elephant".

What made it beautiful is that it looks like a white slab floating over a field with a rain forest park behind. What made it atrocious is that the thing had no windows or ventilation, bad water drainage and it is in the middle of the rain forest region: hot, humid and moldy; the perfect breeding place for respiratory diseases. Most people would work very little time there before leaving to treat allergies, flu, pneumonia and even tuberculosis.

Just to be sure that it is clear, Neimaier was the architect of most of the buildings in Brasilia, but not the man who made the urban plan. That was Lucio Costa.

I'm not trying to defend him, he approaches architecture with the intent to create his own brand of ‘beauty’ which results in buildings like you experienced, but he should not be blamed for Brasilia's possible failure as a city.

Like the article mentioned, Brasilia is a glorified disaster in usability for everyone except those in cars. It's terrible for humans on foot or on bicycles. However the biggest travesty was the decision to locate the city in an area that has a 10-15% relative humidity during the winter months (May to September). It is so dry that your eyes and throat will be very dry, scratchy and uncomfortable and your lips will become chapped. Some people even experience nosebleeds from the excessive dryness.

The other problem with Brasilia is the 99%er problem. The city was built by the 99% for the 1%. All the 99%ers ended up in the slummy satellite cities, where the quality of life is low and where there hasn't been any real sources of economic activity to raise the quality of life.

Also, important to remember, Brasilia is in the middle of no-fucking-where. I remember when my - then - wife wanted to get a tourism visa to the US you had two options: go to São Paulo, or Brasilia. Brasilia had half the waiting time, but for us living in Santa Catarina it was simply a no-go.

Agreed; as an architect, Niemeyer is an excellent sculptor.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com