More Japanese Food

It is probably not a well-known fact, but Brazil is home to the largest community of Japanese outside Japan. Yet the first Japanese immigrant only arrived in 1908 (thank you Wiki). Most of the descendants today do not master the Japanese language properly and are fully integrated in the Brazilian culture. The owners of the Nippo restaurant, both of third generation Japanese descent, returned to Japan to take proper cooking training before opening their little restaurant. Despite its cafeteria looks and its neon ambiance, the food is really what one would hope for in a Japanese restaurant! The kids love it, as you see!

PS: my kids are usually (force) fed three times a day.

Architectural Gems - Itamaraty

The Palaçio de Itamaraty, or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Facing the Justice Hall across the Axis, and while it has similar features - sitting in a reflective pool, glazed facades pulled back from repetitive arches and pillars, it is a more subtle design. It is where the President and ministers meet and greet their international counterparts. The palace is in fact more of a museum,  a show case of gifts and artwork collected by the nation both by Brazilian and international artists. Inside, the work of Athos Bulcao has been integrated while Niemeyer again plays with its beautifully scary staircase. Atop the building a sculpture garden is hidden, a very interesting vantage point at the Axis and its architectural population.

Architectural Gems - the Justice Hall

The Justice Hall, also known as the Palaçio da Justicia, is certainly one of my Niemeyer favorite. Oversized gargoyles spitting water in a large koi basin, from which the building's large concrete colonnade raises. Despite its brutalist language, it expresses strength and stability, and its own kind of elegance. Beautifully lit at night, when one takes the Axis towards the Rodoviaria, it appears suddenly atop the hill, a completely amazing sight. This unexpected encounter a night I was making my way back to the city from the suburbs left this building deeply etched in my heart. A luminous ethereal architectural vision.

Architectural Gems - the National Theatre

Aside from the Monumental Axis, near the Rodoviaria, stands a truncated pyramid covered in a series of concrete reliefs. Another of Neimeyer's baby. Probably initially white, these patterns, created by Athos Bulcao, seems to gather the dusty red earth of the bare landscape of the axis. Inside are a few ramps and free standing staircases, always scary for the mom of small kids (what would this architect done with the Canadian Building code?) Yet the light of the interior of the greenhouse atrium certainly has beautiful qualities. It is unfortunate that the two theater rooms have not gotten a facelift, or at least a seating upgrade. It would really bring the building the to national level it deserves.

Architectural Gems - the Congress

One of the first monument was we visited when we arrived was the Congress. Again one of Neimeyer's iconic structures, it is also the center of the democratic power of the country, well located at the end of the monumental axis. The concept is simple: two cupolas, an inverted one holding the Senate, one open to the sky holding the Chamber of deputies, both atop a low building and separated by two slim vertical towers. A number of other buildings are connected to them by a few tunnels and pedestrian walkways.

Architectural Gems - the Cathedral

When we arrived a few months ago, not having friends yet but search of some kind of entertainment, I took the kids to the monuments of Brasilia. If I had some success at times, other times I had to drag them in. Mom is an architect, so she was not going to wait to do the architectural pilgrimage of the capital of modernism. And it was keeping us occupied. Now that we have visitors, we do the rounds once more.
I am going to help you visit my favorites. First the Cathedral.
It is Brasilia icon, the image of its structure is often used against the name of the city or various businesses in various forms. Built in 1970, Niemeyer sketched these 16 concrete ribs elements and toped them with a cross. This is the cross that was first used during the first service held in the fields that later became Brasilia, when the city was first being laid out. Beside the Cathedral stand four tall bronze statues representing the evangelists, by sculptor Dante Croce, alongside a set of bells, set in their own steeple.  A strange low oval shape lies beside the cathedral, and hides the baptistery.
These curved concrete pillars arise from a reflective pool (a recurrent element in Niemeyer's work, similarly found around the National Museum for example). Visitors enter via a dark tunnel that takes them below ground and under the pool, to the main sanctuary, filled with light and surrounded by stained glass work by the artist Marianne Peretti (installed only in 1990). Suspended above the space are three bronze angels by Alfredo Cheschiatti.
My first impressions, even before entering, were related to the scale of the structure, much simpler and smaller than its iconic status might lead us to imagine. Niemeyer's critics chastised him for allowing too much light in such hot climate, creating some kind of furnace, as if he wanted all the believers to burn in their faith. I rather discover a space that was cool and fresh, peaceful and subdued, light and discrete, the architecture being a support for art and light, something really subtle.
Of course, my inner architectural critic finds something to say about the detailing, specially in this access tunnel, to be lacking. Or in the outdoor landscaping that does not even deserve this name.
But in essence they do not take away the architectural significance of the work. 

Grand-Papa is Here!

If there is something that makes the kids super excited - apart from another plane ride - it is the visit of their dear Grand-Papa. And what a treat this visit is! Arriving on Easter weekend, we did a round of the friends and their best tables. We toured the monuments of Brasilia (more here here and here and here) and we also went to Pirenopolis, the little colonial town near by. A mandatory stop in the sanctuary of Vaga Fogo, where we splurged in a luscious lunch made of local treats and delicacies. It was nice to have my dad around, and to spend time with his girlfriend June.