Brasilia, a capital created ex nihilo in the centre of the country in 1956, was a landmark in the history of town planning. Urban planner Lucio Costa and architect Oscar Niemeyer intended that every elemento - from the layout of the residential and administrative districts (often compared to the shape pf a bird in flight) to the symmetry of the buildings themselves - should be in harmony with the city's overall design. The official buildings, in particular, are innovative and imaginative. The city is inscribed as an UNESCO site since 1987.
