ABSTRACT
Designed to be a capital city, Brasília embodies the distinct albeit naive optimism of post-war modern architecture and urban design. Though Brazil had been an independent nation since 1822, it took well over 130 years for it to establish a new capital. From 1832 to 1936, the capital city was known only as the name of some future city somewhere in the interior. Finally, in 1936, the government designated a specific site 600 miles north of Rio de Janeiro in central Brazil. In 1957, the Brazilian government sponsored an international competition for the city and selected Brazilian urban designer Lúcio Costa to develop the master plan with Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer to design the government buildings. While the pace from national independence to winning competition was unhurried, the move from winning entry to completed government complex was rapid with many government buildings opening as early as 1960.
