For one of the best bird’s-eye views of Brasília, you don’t look up—you go down. Hidden beneath the vast openness of the Praça dos Três Poderes (the Plaza of Three Powers), at the heart of the city, a descending staircase reveals a subterranean gallery with a unique vantage point.
At street level, one figure dominates: Oscar Niemeyer, the visionary architect whose bold, curving forms gave Brasília its distinctive retro-futuristic look. Yet the imprint of another key figure is equally important: Lúcio Costa.
Costa was the urban planner who conceived Brasília’s overall layout, drawing inspiration from the optimism of the jet age. In his scheme, the main government buildings form the central “fuselage,” while residential and commercial sectors extend outward like swept-back wings.
Below the plaza, inside the Espaço Cultural Lúcio Costa, a 560-square-foot scale model of Costa’s pilot plan demonstrates the city’s clarity and geometric harmony. The model makes it easy to appreciate how the city’s broad axes and open spaces were carefully organized to serve both symbolic and practical purposes.
Planning and designing a national capital left lasting legacies for its creators: Lúcio Costa lived to see his vision endure, passing away in 1998 at age 96, and Oscar Niemeyer continued working and influencing architecture well into old age, dying in 2012 at 104. Their combined contributions remain central to Brasília’s identity, blending visionary urban planning with sculptural architectural forms.