Lucio Costa

Lúcio Costa , 1902-98, As the principal designer of the city of Brasília (1957), Costa is known for his use of reinforced concrete in designs that combine traditional and modern forms. In Rio de Janeiro, the block of apartments in Guinle Park (1948-54) typifies his streamlined work. The Ministry of Education and Health (1937-42) exhibits his understanding of the effect of climatic considerations on architectural design.

Burle Marx, Roberto (1909–94). Brazilian artist, best-known as one of the outstanding landscape architects and garden designers of the 20th century, but also active as a painter, sculptor, and designer of fabrics, jewellery, and stage sets. He was born in São Paulo to a Brazilian mother of French descent and a German-born father. In 1928–9 his family lived in Berlin, where he attended art classes at the Academy and developed an interest in Brazilian plants through visits to the city's Botanic Gardens. Back in Brazil he enrolled at the School of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro in 1930, studying painting under Portinari, whom he later assisted with tiled murals at the Ministry of Education in Rio (1937). In 1933 Burle Marx completed the first of the many garden projects that made him one of the most celebrated and best-loved artists in his country. He used colourful tropical plants arranged as sculptural groups within free-flowing patterns and succeeded in creating ‘a style of landscape design that is at once essentially Brazilian and wholly of the 20th century’ (Oxford Companion to Gardens, 1986). Many of his designs are skilfully harmonized with examples of Brazil's striking modern architecture, for example his garden and roof terraces (1938) for the Ministry of Education in Rio (the architect was Lucio Costa, later famous for his work at the new capital Brasilia). Burle Marx designed gardens in other counties in Latin America and also in the USA.