Brasília
Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. Brasília is a planned city. It was built in 41 months and was inaugurated on April 21, 1960. The construction of the city was ordered by President Juscelino Kubitschek. The main urban planner was Lúcio Costa and the chief architect of all the public buildings was Oscar Niemeyer.
While in part the city was built because there was the need for a neutral federal capital, the main reason was to promote the development of Amazonia and better integrate the entire territory of Brazil. Brasilia is approximately at the geographical center of the Brazilian territory, and the idea of promoting the inland areas was present even in the 1891 Constitution.
Brasília is situated in the Brazilian Federal District, Distrito Federal. The city is designed in the shape of an airplane, with housing and offices situated on giant superblocks, giving it a non-pedestrian scale. Since the city was designed around the advent of motor transport, there is a notable lack of sidewalks among the city's major buildings.
Population: 1,969,868.
