ABSTRACT
The definitive verdict on Brasília would seem to have been delivered by the critic and long-time scourge of architects, Colin Ward, embarrassingly soon after its inauguration:
A Brazilian dictator built Brasília, the new capital of his country. A friend of mine who went there remembers only the real life of the place in the Ciudad Libre or Free City where the people who built Brasília live in their home-made sheds and shanties, sixteen kilometres out of town.1
