Coordinates: 15 47 S 47 55 W
Population: 3,341,00 (2006 est.)
It will be another 27 months until this modern metropolis can truly celebrate its golden anniversary, but 2007 did give the Brazilian capital two reasons to celebrate nonetheless. First, the famed construction of Lúcia Côsta’s Plano Piloto began here on the plateaus of Goiás state fifty years ago, although work on the airport and the presidential palace had already started in 1956. Secondly, as the largest urban center built entirely in the 20th century, Brasília has just entered its third decade as a UNESCO World Heritage site, after gaining recognition as a “landmark in the history of town planning.” Intended to draw commerce and development to the interior, its ultramodern architecture and imaginative, yet unusual airplane-inspired design failed to displace the economic dominance of the older coastal cities and hindered its ability to become an inspirational city of the future.
Ben Keene is the editor of Oxford Atlas of the World. Check out some of his previous places of the week.
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