Abstract
Dislocating the capital to Brazil’s interior highlands is a long standing project in the country’s history. The project was first linked to the transfer of the royal court from Lisbon to the Portuguese America, where a metropolis would be established in what until then had been a colonial purveyor of goods. Until 1953, the quest for a worthy capital involved many factors such as the establishment of a Portuguese empire in the Americas, Portugal’s repudiation of an Ancien Régime monarchy in the South Atlantic, the formation of a counter hegemony in a former colony, or the construction of a unified, republican, and modern Brazilian nation. As Lúcio Costa - the architect of the final iteration of Brazil’s new capital - once put it: “it was a century-old purpose, always postponed.”

Keywords
Modern Movement, Modern architecture, Brasilia modern architecture, World Heritage, Modern urban design, Brazil’s new capital, History of Brazil.

Issue 43
Year 2010
Pages 14-21
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.52200/43.A.NBSA4DND