Filming on the Esplanada dos Ministérios, Brasília
Seventeen identical nine-storey ministry blocks stand in two rows along a twelve-lane boulevard and a wide grass median.
What Esplanada dos Ministérios looks like
Identical blocks line both sides of a straight boulevard, with a grass median down the centre. The roadway has twelve lanes, six each way. There are seventeen blocks in all. Seven are lettered A to G, on one side. Ten are lettered J to R, on the other. Each block is nine storeys tall. The front is glass and the ends are white tile.
The white ends carry the ministry names in gold lettering. Each block also has two annexes that repeat its footprint, joined to it by an enclosed walkway with no windows. An underground garage ramp dips into the grass beside the buildings, and a green sign names the ministry at its exit.
New Year's Eve and Carnival events are held on the open lawn between the rows. It also takes protests and public shows. Barriers and event tents line the block bases when a show is set up.
Two other ministry buildings sit east of the rows, the on the north side and the on the south. The stands farther west, past the bus station.
The resembles a pyramid, 46 metres tall, near the bus station. The stands on pilotis with cobogós in its facade, east of the bus station.
Shot in Esplanada dos Ministérios
Petra Costa's 2019 Netflix documentary Democracia em Vertigem shows the Esplanada dos Ministérios during the impeachment process. On screen, the boulevard is divided by barricades.
Democracia em Vertigem, 2019
The barricades separated right and left groups during the impeachment vote. Petra Costa directed the film. Street View
Lúcio Costa called the Esplanada a mall, which the Monumental Axis article glosses as an English term for wide avenues. The article names Washington's National Mall as one such avenue. Shoot down the lawn so the buildings at the edges fall out of frame. Try searching National Mall lawn now.
Capitol Complex in Chandigarh, India
Le Corbusier accepted the Capitol Complex commission in 1951, and its government buildings are cast in exposed concrete. The Secretariat is about 254 metres long, made from six eight-storey blocks joined by expansion joints. The concrete brise-soleil screens and striking cantilevers give Chandigarh away in a close frame, while the Esplanada's blocks are glass fronted. Try searching concrete government complex now.
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