(1902-1998)

In 1957, Lucio Costa won the competition for the pilot plan for Brasilia with a sketch in which the new capital took on the form of a bird. From these few lines was built the Modern Moverment’s urban utopia, whose embedding in Latin America owes so much to Costa. Born and educated in France, he moved to Brazil in the mid-twenties, dedicating all his energy to disseminating the new European architecture, which for him was embodied in the figure of Le Corbusier, who he would later invite to take part in the competition for the Ministy of Education in Rio de Janeiro (1936-1943). Under his patronage shone the talents of Roberto Burle Marx, whose studies he guided, and Óscar Niemeyer, whose collaboration he required to design the Pavilion of Brazil for the New York Fair of 1939, through which the international image of Brazilian Modernism was projected. Costa died in the morning of 13 June; his tough, generous personality and his selfless dedication to the cause of architecture is remembered in the memoires he published Record of an Experience, where indeed many exciting episodes of the Modern adventure are recorded.