On the global inter‐location of a postcolonial city

Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, became internationally known as the modern city par excellence. However, recent discussions on architecture, urban studies, city planning and globalization seem to have forgotten this city, dislocating it from its visible place. This essay discusses some critical approaches that could help us to locate Brasilia on the map again. The first approach is defined here as national, as it deals with the internal historical development and present situation of this city in the face of external challenges. The second relies on the European debates on modernity and postmodernity, highlighting the role of Brasilia within aesthetic and philosophical critiques of modernism. The third inserts the city within the field of tension between colonialism and postcolonialism in Latin America. After considering these approaches, the conclusion indicates the need to reassess Brasilia according to a wider international perspective, which the author defines as global inter‐location. This perspective searches for spaces and interstices in which we can insert the city not simply as the symbol of an obsolete architectonic modernism that is considered out of place, but as a key element—among other Latin American cities—for the design of a new critical geopolitics.