Some raw impressions

This new city, described by others as idyllic, and imagined as the ultimate example of urban planning (at the time) might appear differently to a new comer like me. Or maybe Brasilia is so uniquely strange that it takes time to adjust to it. Here are some of my first impressions of the city, after 4 days or so:

The city essentially feels like a highway with people living around it. All the neighborhoods look similar and feel similar, it is very disconcerting. I had the impression to pass by a same commercial area several times, yet it was never the case. Everything in divided in sectors, for living, for the banks, for going out, for schools, for shopping, for art diffusion. The area with individual houses, Lago Sul (South Lake) is prettier, at some point the road passes along a marsh, while still in the actual city limits; there is this feeling of being in the wild for a few minutes. Pretty.

The housing market itself is crazy, housing is not what you would expect. Because the city has been created from scratch four decades ago, and since it was a complete masterplan (which by the way did not really include room for real expansion), most things were built in the same years, and consequently, most things that we have been visiting are showing similar signs of age. Then there is the question of size. Lots are large in the area (as we would prefer living in a house we will end up renting in this area).  So with large and expensive lots, most owners have decided to make an investment comparable in terms of property, and most houses are extremely large.  And today, looking at the area near the city center where the kids school is located, I realized that the comparaison to regular city houses (which are mostly row houses), their size is tremendously larger.

It is a suburban life even where we live now, near the center, to get to the grocery store is not really possible except for a few small errands, but going to the doctor, to the sport center, to see a show, all need a car. Maybe without the car I can go the church around the corner, and get my dry cleaning done. It is such a strange change from Beijing, where we did not really need to car for all our daily essentials.

Here is a small plan to give you an idea of its shape. Thank you for dilettante 31 for the map. More about the city itself in a few posts.