The eastern half of the Eixo Monumental is flanked by two parallel rows of identical white concrete ministry buildings, eight on each side. Niemeyer designed the type — a glassy, eight-storey horizontal slab raised on stilts — to give the federal government a deliberately anonymous, neutral architectural identity, with the political and judicial buildings around the Three Powers Plaza standing out by contrast.
The effect from the cathedral side is monumental: a long perspective of identical glass curtains receding to the National Congress. Wander down one side for the most photographed Brasília view.