National Congress

— It is true that Brasília (Brazil’s capital city) has a futuristic look. The entire city was planned from scratch to replace Brazil’s capital city in 1960. The idea was to have a city that was central to most of the country. Therefore, the chosen location was in the central plains in Brazil. The current city of Brasília has outgrown its original plan. However, the main plan — or as it is called, the Pilot Plan — remains intact. All buildings in the Pilot Plan are controlled to standards set back when the city was built, and it was designed by renowned architect Oscar Niemeyer, who also created the building design for the United Nations in New York City. Incidentally, the name Pilot Plan comes from the fact that the city design looks like an airplane. So, the neighborhoods are called “wings.” The photo above shows the central point of the government buildings, the Brazilian National Congress. The towers house offices for bureaucrats, senators, and deputies. The two saucers are the Senate (right-side up) and the Chamber of Deputies (upside down saucer). Those are functional buildings with the chambers for those branches of government.