Brasília is the capital city of Brazil and is located in the center of the country. Brasília is a planned city, built from 1956 until its inauguration on April 21, 1960. The construction of the city was ordered by President Juscelino Kubitschek, who had promised to move the nation's capital to the central plateau during his election campaign in 1955.

The main urban planner of Brasília was Lúcio Costa, chief architect of most of the public buildings was Oscar Niemeyer, and landscape designer was Roberto Burle Marx. The city's structure was based upon the ideas of Le Corbusier.

Despite Costa insiting on a butterfly-shaped plan, Brasília is designed in the shape of an airplane. Housing and offices are situated on giant superblocks, everything following the original plan. The plan specifies which zones are residential, which are commercial, where industires can settle, where official buildings can be built, the maximum size of buildings, etc.

In the airplane design, the wings -- north and south -- are each roughly seven km. long. A wide high-speed avenue, the Eixão, crosses both wings and passes under a central bus station located where the wings meet. The two wings have the residential areas made up of appartment blocks (Super Quadra) of three or six storeys. A typical Super Quadra will have eleven buildings, identified by a letter. Commercial streets separate the blocks and there are schools and churches in areas between them. Green space and trees make the areas very livable. Residents of the city affirm that it is one of the best cities in which to raise children.

Between the lake and the wings is an avenue called either L2 South or North, depending on the wing it is located. It has churches, schools, and hospitals. Another avenue called W3 has mostly shops. Near the bus station there is a banking and hotel sector. Near the banks of the lake are embassies and recreational clubs and on its shores many luxurious houses.

The fuselage of the plane contains the government buildings, ministries, the senate, chamber of deputies and the futuristich cathedral designed by Niemeyer. The enormous Parque da Cidade gives the city's inhabitants a much-needed space for recreation.

One major criticism of Brasília is that it was designed on a non-pedestrian scale. Since the city was developed at the advent of motor transport, pedestrians were not taken much into consideration. In the original plan there were no traffic lights and all cars moved over overpasses, through tunnels and around traffic circles. Today with half a million people living in the Plano Piloto (the original Pilot Plan) this plan had to be modified. Distances are staggering and pedestrians have to walk far to move from one point to another. The high speed avenues are especially dangerous to cross. Recently a subway has been built with a line completed for the South Wing and continuing to the major satellite city of Taguatinga. Public transportation is plentiful but the automobile dominates life in Brasília.

Another criticism of the city is that the poor were forced to move far away to satellite towns, where they live in conditions that are inferior to those of the Pilot Plan. Some of these cities, like Taguatinga, are now larger than Brasília itself. Buses and a surface rapid transit system connect these cities with the center.