The general public will be able to see Oscar Niemeyer's architectural gems - the Palácio da Alvorada, Palácio do Planalto, Palácio Itamaraty, the Supreme Federal Court and the National Congress. The event will also include an international conference on the vision of modern cities, documented with the examples of Zlín and the five Brazilian cities founded by Jan Antonin Bata after his emigration. The exhibition will take place in the St. Wenceslas Hall of the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague, and will be available to visitors on request, with guided tours on 5 and 12 November 2023. In December, it will be on free view in the atrium of Faculty of Civil Engineering.
"The aim of the exhibition is to present Brazilian artistic and cultural heritage that represents Brazilian architecture and identity," says architect Marco Maio, a lecturer at the Department of Architecture at CTU Faculty of Civil Engineering, who is behind the project. In the exhibition, visitors will be able to see unique photographs and plans of buildings that have helped shape the aesthetics and design principles of today. For the first time, models of individual buildings will also be presented, showing their originality and imposingness in a scale of 1:300. The models were created by students of the faculty with the help of 3D printing.
"We believe that there will be interest in the exhibition from the general public, because Oscar Niemeyer's work has never been presented in this aspect, as well as from students, because every architecture student and related disciplines should know these buildings. Moreover, the exhibition and the accompanying programme present them in a comprehensive and very interesting way," says Prof. Mikuláš Hulec, Head of the Department of Architecture at Faculty of Civil Engineering, who coordinates the project.
The connection of the Visions of Modern Cities international conference will be the personalities of Tomáš and Jan Antonín Bata and Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, the Brazilian president from the late 1950s and early 1960s with Czech origin, and their ideas of modern settlements.
"Using the examples of Brasília and Zlín, as well as other newly founded cities in the middle of the twentieth century in both countries, we would like to develop an open discussion to assess the global significance of the Czech contribution in the field of newly founded settlements in the 20th century," says Marco Maio. "We will discuss, for example, the founding of Batatuba, Bataguassu, Batayporã and others," adds Marco Maio from Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague. Topics of the conference will include, for example, the modern city, its planning and starting points, and a comparison of Czech and Brazilian conditions in contrast to both countries in terms of size, climate and history.
The exhibition "Architecture and Power - The Palaces of Brasília" and the conference "Visions of Modern Cities" contribute to the promotion of Brazil's important artistic and cultural heritage and represent Brazilian architecture and identity. It is part of a series of activities aimed at strengthening cultural exchange between Brazil and the Czech Republic and activities to promote academic cooperation with Brazilian institutions. The planned events will address aspects of modern architecture and urbanism in both countries, with a special focus on the cities of Brasília and Zlín.
The exhibition "Architecture and Power - The Palaces of Brasilia" can be seen in the St.Wenceslas Hall of the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague during November 2023 on request, or you can take advantage of guided tours on 5 and 12 November. In December 2023, the exhibition will be freely on view in the atrium of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague.
The international conference "Visions of Modern Cities" will take place on 2 November 2023 at Faculty of Civil Engineering of Czech Technical University in Prague.
More info at www.fsv.cvut.cz