Brasília is undeniably an impressive city, which defies the traditional concept of what big cities – and a country’s capital – should be like.

Intending to move the Brazilian government from the coast to the center of the country, President Juscelino Kubitschek commanded, in 1956, the construction of an entirely new city from scratch, in the middle of an unpopulated area in the Brazilian savanna (cerrado).

The city and all the main residential and official buildings were built in only a few months, and less than four years after its construction had started, the city was officially inaugurated, replacing Rio de Janeiro as the Brazilian Federal capital city.

Brasília is the result of a modern urban project. When seen from above, the city’s urban plan resembles the shape of an airplane – with the main official sites spread across the main axis, the so-called Eixo Monumental, and the residential and commercial blocks geometrically forming both wings.

The city is, up to this day, a world reference in urban planning. Besides the uniqueness of its urban project, Brasília is also a world reference to modern architecture, which is evidenced in most of the official buildings.

For both reasons, as well as for its relevance as a model for modern cities, Brasília is the only city in the world built in the 20th century which has been awarded with the status of Historical and Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

The year 2010 will be crucial to the Brazilian capital as well: it will mark Brasília’s 50th anniversary. The 13th edition of AMUN shares with Brasília’s anniversary a spirit of contemplation of the past and reflection on it. It also shares with the city tendencies of futurism and vanguard.

Thematic Conception

The monument: Brasília’s National Library

Following late AMUNs tradition of choosing among monuments of Brasília’s architecture, one that embodies each edition’s theme, the thematic conception for the 13th AMUN fits perfectly well with Brasília’s National Library.

Libraries are the primary source of contact between contemporary society and the history of humanity. Every librarystores the ultimate means and products of human technology: books. As much as the so-called ‘information age’ and the virtual world characterize our times, libraries have not lost its major function of enriching each man and woman with the knowledge his or her society has to offer. Because Brasília’s National Library expresses the essential tensions that mark the thematic conception and because it was built during the last decade, it was chosen to represent the spirit of the next AMUN.

It is well established that each edition of AMUN’s visual identity is composed of a monument and other elements from Brasília’s architecture and environment. The 13th AMUN employs the Brasília’s National Library’s façade as its major element of visual identity. In addition, the sketches of the famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer – especially those that preview future buildings at Brasília’s Eixo Monumental –, and also, the symbolic panels of the renowned artist from Brasília, Athos Bulcão – that characterize many of the city’s monuments and buildings, including the Instituto Rio Branco’s central wall – are used to compose the final 13th AMUN visual identity.

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