Patrimônio, preservação e poder

One of the main issues concerning the preservation of Brasilia as a World Cultural Heritage Site is the absence or, to say the least, the ambiguity of the parameters that preside over the city’s monitoring poli- cies. The results are arbitrary and unpredictable decisions related to each and every urbanistic episode. There is a paradox: 1) measures which imply damaging cityscape are approved because they are not per- ceived as such by the preservation agencies; 2) measures which would benefit the city’s configuration and its appropriation by the people are prohibited because they are seen as damaging the site. Therefore: more is approved and more is prohibited than it should, simultaneously. Moreover, in both cases (permissions and restrictions) an elitist ideology is revealed, one which benefits the city’s appropriation by the upper income layers. Measures grant more space for the individual car even in the most central areas (e.g. North Commercial Sector); there happens an aggressive repression against informal commerce in public spaces and more popular land uses in buildings, in important avenues. It is the case with: informal traders in the Road Platform; the TV Tower weekly fair; the appearance of cheap hostels in the W-3 South Avenue. Brasilia’s preservation policies do not take into account recent trends in similar policies around the globe, which give a place of pride to cultural importance as a central aim concerning heritage preservation. Poli- cies ignore the strengthening of urbanity as a crucial objective related to city’s form by means of the val- orisation of public space; the opinion of the more popular social actors involved is disregarded: they do not succeed in countering official outlooks towards the city and in managing the implementation of alter- native solutions which would benefit not only themselves but the city at large.