Lúcio Costa

Lúcio Ferreira Ribeiro Marcal Lima Costa ( born February 27, 1902 in Toulon, † June 13, 1998 in Rio de Janeiro) was a Brazilian architect and urban planner.

Life and work

After a childhood and youth in Europe, Costa moved to Brazil, where he worked in Rio de Janeiro at the Academy of Fine Arts 1924 - 1930 he himself became their manager - earned a degree in architecture.

Costa was a fan of the modern style of Le Corbusier, he wanted to combine with traditional elements of Brazilian architecture. His leading role in the Brazilian architectural modernism, he illustrated inter alia by the Brazil Pavilion at the New York World's Fair of 1939 (together with Oscar Niemeyer ), the residential area Parque Guinle in Rio in 1948, the Hotel do Park São Clemente in Nova Friburgo.

But he was best known by the plan to build the new Brazilian capital Brasília, for which he was appointed in 1957. He baptized him Plano Piloto ( "Pilot Plan" ) on the plan of the city, which resembled an airplane. The detailed planning of the building resumed Oscar Niemeyer, but also reserved the Costa planning the many details right down to the color of the uniforms of the bus driver (dark gray). Differences between the two chief designers did not fail, but succeeded in a remarkably short time, the realization of this plan capital, which could be as early as 1960 "turnkey" passed and inaugurated by President Juscelino Kubitschek. 1962 came university and cathedral added, in 1967 the television tower Brasília, 1978, the City Park, and in 1981 the Central Bank. Since 1987, the city is a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 2001 and has Brasilia, which is now in the metropolitan area has over 2 million inhabitants, on a subway.

The city is regarded as a symbol of progress and has an impressive ensemble of public buildings, especially in the government district in the " cockpit ", at the same time but also the lack of history and cold drawing board this city is often criticized.