Superquadra 308 Sul, Igrejinha de Fátima & Living Plano Piloto Guide

To understand why Brasília was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, you have to step off the civic Monumental Axis and walk into the residential wings of Asa Sul. Here, between 1958 and 1962, Lúcio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer, Roberto Burle Marx, and Athos Bulcão collaborated on a single model neighbourhood unit, Superquadra 308 Sul (SQS 308) and its adjoining Igrejinha Nossa Senhora de Fátima, to demonstrate how twentieth-century architecture could create a green, egalitarian community.

1. Igrejinha Nossa Senhora de Fátima (1958): The First Church in Brasília

Standing on the green belt between Superquadras 307 and 308 Sul (just five minutes' walk from 108 Sul Metro Station), the Igrejinha Nossa Senhora de Fátima was built in exactly 100 days and inaugurated on 28 June 1958, making it the very first permanent masonry church in the new capital. First Lady Dona Sarah Kubitschek commissioned the chapel to fulfil a personal vow after her daughter Márcia recovered from an illness.

• Niemeyer's Winged Roof & Athos Bulcão's Tiles: Oscar Niemeyer gave the chapel a sweeping, triangular white concrete roof resting on three piers that evokes the starched white winged cornette hat (chapéu de freira) worn by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul. Wrapping the curved exterior walls is the only surviving exterior church mural by Athos Bulcão: deep cobalt-blue and white ceramic tiles patterned with the Star of Bethlehem and the Dove of the Holy Spirit.

2. Walking Inside Superquadra Modelo 308 Sul (1962)

Cross the shaded pedestrian underpass from the church directly into Superquadra 308 Sul, inaugurated in 1962 by the Bank of Brazil for its staff. Every detail of Lúcio Costa's urban manifesto is preserved here:

• Six-Storey Blocks on Open Pilotis: Residential buildings are capped at six storeys (roughly the height of mature tree crowns) and raised off the ground on slender concrete columns (pilotis). Because the ground beneath every building is public property with zero walls or gates, anyone can walk freely from one end of the block to the other in the shade.
• Burle Marx's Water Garden & Bulcão's Entrance Towers: In the centre of the green lawn, Roberto Burle Marx designed a tranquil geometric pond crossed by concrete stepping stones and filled with orange koi carp and aquatic plants, while Athos Bulcão decorated the lift lobbies and the adjacent Escola Parque 308 Sul with geometric tile murals and openwork concrete breeze-blocks (cobogós).

3. Cine Brasília (1960) and Comércio Local Dining

At the eastern edge of the neighbourhood unit (106/107 Sul) stands Cine Brasília, designed by Niemeyer in 1960 as one of Brazil's great single-screen art cinemas, right beside the leafy cafés, bookshops, and bakeries of CLS 107 and 108 Sul.