For anyone travelling for modern architecture, this city is a rare case. In most destinations the important works are scattered and mixed with centuries of other things. Here they are together, contemporary with each other and answering to a single plan.
01 A built catalogue
The ensemble went up in very little time. The first buildings on the central axis were completed between 1958 and 1960, for the city's inauguration, and the later landmarks arrived through the 1960s and 1970s.
What is interesting is that the same architect kept working here for half a century. There are works of his from the 1950s and works from the 2000s, in the same city and minutes apart, which lets you follow the evolution of a language without changing location.
That ensemble is what UNESCO protected in 1987. The buildings were not protected one by one but the relationship between them and the layout that orders them, which is exactly what you should go to look at.
02 How to build the route
The basic rule is to split the day into two blocks of light. Dawn and early morning for the central axis, when the sun comes in from the side and the white volumes gain their own shadows; and late afternoon for the buildings facing west.
In between, midday is useless for photographs and exhausting for walking: vertical sun, overheated concrete and esplanades without a tree. It is the hour for interiors, for eating and for moving by car.
And do not try to do it on foot. The distances on the monumental axis are kilometres and pavements do not always exist; the efficient approach is a car or a series of short taxi rides between stops.
03 What to look for when you are in front of it
Look first at the point of support. Many of these buildings try to touch the ground as little as possible: they rise on slim columns, narrow where they meet the earth and seem to float over the esplanade.
Then look at the curve. It is the defining feature of this language and it is not decorative: it defines the structure, and in several buildings the exterior form is exactly what solves the constructional problem inside.
And look at the water. Many of these works sit over sheets of water that duplicate them by reflection and lower the surrounding temperature a little. In such a dry city, that device is not only aesthetic.
04 The practicalities
On timing: May is the best month, with the rain finished and humidity still reasonable. Avoid August and September, when the air is very dry and smoke from cerrado fires can veil the horizon for days.
On access: some buildings can be visited inside on specific days and times, and others can only be seen from outside. It is worth checking the schedule before fixing your itinerary, because it changes.
And on time needed: two full days cover the central axis unhurriedly. With three, you can add the lake shore and a work or two outside the usual circuit.
Few cities let you follow half a century of one architect's work without taking a plane between buildings.
05 If this is not for you
If you travel looking for lively streets, terraces and an old quarter, this city will feel cold and hard work. It is designed for the car, distances are enormous and there is no pedestrian centre in the usual sense.
But if twentieth-century architecture interests you, it is one of the few places in the world where you can walk through a complete idea, built whole and at once, instead of scattered fragments spread across a historic city.
