Brasilia and the CIAM
The spatial and social structure of Brasilia was based on the manifestos of CIAM, the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne. Until the sixties of the 20th century, these formed a point of reference for the development of the modern city. The central theme of the CIAM is the spatial separation of the key functions of urban life: living, working, leisure and traffic. The CIAM manifestos assumed that the government had complete control over the planning of the built environment.
Van Eesteren played a decisive role in the formulation of the CIAM ideals. The fourth CIAM congress, held in Amsterdam in 1935, was primarily devoted to an international presentation of the Amsterdam Expansion Plan. In fact, it was the first realisation of the Charter of Athens, the city of the second CIAM congress, which was two years older. It was only after WW2 that the CIAM concepts formulated in this charter were realised. Perhaps most consistently and spectacularly in Brasilia.
Incidentally, it was not so much Van Eesteren as another key figure within CIAM,
Le Corbusier, whose interpretation of the CIAM ideal was reproduced in Brasilia. Under his supervision, a complete city was built within 41 months under the direction of the urban planner Lucio Costa and the architect Oscar Niemeyer. Upon completion in 1960, Brasilia became the capital of Brazil. Brasilia is considered the most complete modernist ideal city and as such has been on UNESCO's World Heritage List since 1987.
Van Eesteren's pioneering role within CIAM and his indirect involvement in the design of Brasilia and several other post-war South American cities led to his being a visiting lecturer at the University of Santiago de Chile in the 1950s, in addition to his professorship in Delft.