Brasília: the capital designed by Niemeyer

The Cathedral of Brasília, a circular structure formed by sixteen curved concrete columns opening toward the sky, houses a ceiling entirely of glass that floods the nave below with natural light.

The National Congress, with its twin towers flanked by an inverted dome and a cup-shaped dome, visually represents Brazil's two parliamentary chambers through the very form of the buildings themselves.

Praça dos Três Poderes, symbolic heart of the capital, unites in the same open space the seats of executive, legislative, and judicial power, following the original Costa plan that rigorously separated city functions.

The Itamaraty Palace, seat of the Foreign Ministry, appears to float optically over an artificial basin of water, with interior gardens designed by landscaper Roberto Burle Marx.

Very few capitals in the world have been planned from the drawing board with such coherence, from the shape of the ministries to the exact distance between one state power and another.

The Itamaraty Palace, seemingly suspended over water itself, perhaps best illustrates how that original plan aimed to make visible, not merely functional, every political choice of the new capital.