Questões de Inglês

From the Rural World to Urban Environment

By Alfonso Hernández Marín

The powerful influence of the city

What moves people to the big cities? According to experts like Jose Maria Llop, Director of the program on "Intermediate Cities and World Urbanization" in the International Union of Architects, one could talk of the "fascination" that the city provokes as an image or interpretation of reality in its greatest socio-economic and historic scale. Some sociologists and anthropologists agree that the modern city represents the ultimate capitalist structure, the height of civilization, and its influence on the collective subconscious could be powerful enough to attract more and more people, even when the opportunities for progress and wellbeing are often false expectations.

The great megalopolis or world metropolis of our era, which many call an "urban revolution", is characterized by their duality in presenting a series of opportunities and problems. The first refers to greater autonomy, diversity of offers (employment, training, leisure, culture), the opportunity to participate in public politics, the socialization of new technologies and more options in terms of residence, activities or types of mobility. However, social segregation in a space has never been so pronounced, with growing inequalities in income and in real access to urban opportunities, vulnerable groups that often live in ghettos or peripheral neighbourhoods, and the increase in both transport time and time at work. All this provides a breeding ground for solitude and lack of solidarity and common environmental, urban and social problems such as criminality, poor outskirts and breakdown of common living structures.

From the Rural World to Urban Environment

By Alfonso Hernández Marín

The powerful influence of the city

What moves people to the big cities? According to experts like Jose Maria Llop, Director of the program on "Intermediate Cities and World Urbanization" in the International Union of Architects, one could talk of the "fascination" that the city provokes as an image or interpretation of reality in its greatest socio-economic and historic scale. Some sociologists and anthropologists agree that the modern city represents the ultimate capitalist structure, the height of civilization, and its influence on the collective subconscious could be powerful enough to attract more and more people, even when the opportunities for progress and wellbeing are often false expectations.

The great megalopolis or world metropolis of our era, which many call an "urban revolution", is characterized by their duality in presenting a series of opportunities and problems. The first refers to greater autonomy, diversity of offers (employment, training, leisure, culture), the opportunity to participate in public politics, the socialization of new technologies and more options in terms of residence, activities or types of mobility. However, social segregation in a space has never been so pronounced, with growing inequalities in income and in real access to urban opportunities, vulnerable groups that often live in ghettos or peripheral neighbourhoods, and the increase in both transport time and time at work. All this provides a breeding ground for solitude and lack of solidarity and common environmental, urban and social problems such as criminality, poor outskirts and breakdown of common living structures.

From the Rural World to Urban Environment

By Alfonso Hernández Marín

The powerful influence of the city

What moves people to the big cities? According to experts like Jose Maria Llop, Director of the program on "Intermediate Cities and World Urbanization" in the International Union of Architects, one could talk of the "fascination" that the city provokes as an image or interpretation of reality in its greatest socio-economic and historic scale. Some sociologists and anthropologists agree that the modern city represents the ultimate capitalist structure, the height of civilization, and its influence on the collective subconscious could be powerful enough to attract more and more people, even when the opportunities for progress and wellbeing are often false expectations.

The great megalopolis or world metropolis of our era, which many call an "urban revolution", is characterized by their duality in presenting a series of opportunities and problems. The first refers to greater autonomy, diversity of offers (employment, training, leisure, culture), the opportunity to participate in public politics, the socialization of new technologies and more options in terms of residence, activities or types of mobility. However, social segregation in a space has never been so pronounced, with growing inequalities in income and in real access to urban opportunities, vulnerable groups that often live in ghettos or peripheral neighbourhoods, and the increase in both transport time and time at work. All this provides a breeding ground for solitude and lack of solidarity and common environmental, urban and social problems such as criminality, poor outskirts and breakdown of common living structures.

From the Rural World to Urban Environment

By Alfonso Hernández Marín

The powerful influence of the city

What moves people to the big cities? According to experts like Jose Maria Llop, Director of the program on "Intermediate Cities and World Urbanization" in the International Union of Architects, one could talk of the "fascination" that the city provokes as an image or interpretation of reality in its greatest socio-economic and historic scale. Some sociologists and anthropologists agree that the modern city represents the ultimate capitalist structure, the height of civilization, and its influence on the collective subconscious could be powerful enough to attract more and more people, even when the opportunities for progress and wellbeing are often false expectations.

The great megalopolis or world metropolis of our era, which many call an "urban revolution", is characterized by their duality in presenting a series of opportunities and problems. The first refers to greater autonomy, diversity of offers (employment, training, leisure, culture), the opportunity to participate in public politics, the socialization of new technologies and more options in terms of residence, activities or types of mobility. However, social segregation in a space has never been so pronounced, with growing inequalities in income and in real access to urban opportunities, vulnerable groups that often live in ghettos or peripheral neighbourhoods, and the increase in both transport time and time at work. All this provides a breeding ground for solitude and lack of solidarity and common environmental, urban and social problems such as criminality, poor outskirts and breakdown of common living structures.

Brasilia: Fifty years of the future

By Gary Duffy ,BBC News, Brasilia

Published: April 06, 2010

Brasilia was a city built at high speed in the late 1950s, fulfilling a long held Brazilian dream to have a new capital in the heart of the country. The president at the time, Juscelino Kubitschek, had promised his people 50 years of progress in five, and work proceeded at a frenetic pace. While Brasilia was under construction, it is said the president used to travel at night to inspect the project, before returning to the then capital in Rio de Janeiro to fulfill a normal round of engagements the next day. 

The new capital, located in the state of Goias, was inaugurated on 21 April 1960 after barely three and a half years of rapid development. Many of the city's most striking buildings were designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer, with his trademark use of concrete and curves. Among them were the National Congress, with its concave and convex domes symbolising the two houses of the legislature, and the city's cathedral with 16 columns coming together to represent hands outstretched to heaven.

'Accidental' capital

It was a bold and dramatic statement that was meant to represent a new vision for the future. "The idea of the new buildings and the plan of Brasilia itself was to create an image of a modern Brazil," says Professor Jose Galbinski, at the Centre University of Brasilia. "It was a contrast with the old tradition, the old Brazil."

However, he says this dramatic change finally came about by accident, even though the proposal had been around for a long time. "The idea of a new capital in the interior had stayed like a dead item in the constitution for decades. Nobody cared about this issue, until the time of Juscelino Kubitschek," says Professor Galbinski. "When he was campaigning for president he was asked by a young man at a public meeting if he would obey the constitution, to which he replied, 'of course I will, I am running for president'." The young guy pointed out there was an article in the constitution which said the capital should be changed from Rio de Janeiro to the interior of Brazil. "Kubitschek was astonished with this, as he had never thought about it. And he replied, 'ok, I will answer you, I will obey all the articles of the constitution, and I will make the move'."

Disponível em: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/2/hi/americas/8569349.stm (texto adaptado).

The wide Esplanade of Ministeries exempiífies Brasilia's design

Brasilia: Fifty years of the future

By Gary Duffy ,BBC News, Brasilia

Published: April 06, 2010

Brasilia was a city built at high speed in the late 1950s, fulfilling a long held Brazilian dream to have a new capital in the heart of the country. The president at the time, Juscelino Kubitschek, had promised his people 50 years of progress in five, and work proceeded at a frenetic pace. While Brasilia was under construction, it is said the president used to travel at night to inspect the project, before returning to the then capital in Rio de Janeiro to fulfill a normal round of engagements the next day. 

The new capital, located in the state of Goias, was inaugurated on 21 April 1960 after barely three and a half years of rapid development. Many of the city's most striking buildings were designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer, with his trademark use of concrete and curves. Among them were the National Congress, with its concave and convex domes symbolising the two houses of the legislature, and the city's cathedral with 16 columns coming together to represent hands outstretched to heaven.

'Accidental' capital

It was a bold and dramatic statement that was meant to represent a new vision for the future. "The idea of the new buildings and the plan of Brasilia itself was to create an image of a modern Brazil," says Professor Jose Galbinski, at the Centre University of Brasilia. "It was a contrast with the old tradition, the old Brazil."

However, he says this dramatic change finally came about by accident, even though the proposal had been around for a long time. "The idea of a new capital in the interior had stayed like a dead item in the constitution for decades. Nobody cared about this issue, until the time of Juscelino Kubitschek," says Professor Galbinski. "When he was campaigning for president he was asked by a young man at a public meeting if he would obey the constitution, to which he replied, 'of course I will, I am running for president'." The young guy pointed out there was an article in the constitution which said the capital should be changed from Rio de Janeiro to the interior of Brazil. "Kubitschek was astonished with this, as he had never thought about it. And he replied, 'ok, I will answer you, I will obey all the articles of the constitution, and I will make the move'."

Disponível em: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/2/hi/americas/8569349.stm (texto adaptado).

The wide Esplanade of Ministeries exempiífies Brasilia's design