Costa, Lúcio

Costa, Lúcio (1902–98). One of Brazil's most influential architects and planners. Born in France, he settled in Brazil, and was influenced by Gregori Warchavchik, with whom he worked for a time. He was in the vanguard of International Modernism in Brazil, and headed a team of young architects (all disciples of Le Corbusier) designing the building for the Ministry of Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro (1936–43), for which Le Cor-busier was consultant architect and Burle Marx was landscape-architect. Costa and Niemeyer designed the Brazilian Pavilion at the World's Fair, NYC (1939), and he himself was responsible for the Eduardo Guinle apart-ment-block in Rio (1948–54) and the Brazilian Pavilion at the Cité Universitaire, Paris (1955). In 1956–7 the imagination of the world was captured by his plan for the new capital, Brasília, and construction moved rapidly ahead. The plan is formal, in the shape of a bow and arrow, and it encapsulates many of the principles laid down by CIAM in the Athens Charter: it has not lived up to its expectations.

Bibliography

Bullrich (1969);
L. Costa (1962);
Gazeneo & and Scarone (1959);
Guimaraens (1996)