Brasilia

A capital conjured from empty savanna in 1956, Brasilia remains modernism's boldest urban experiment. Lucio Costa's plan — often likened to a bird or an aeroplane in flight — arranged residential and administrative districts in sweeping symmetry, while Oscar Niemeyer's official buildings gave the young capital its sculptural white silhouette. A milestone of 20th-century urban design, Brasilia was inscribed by UNESCO in 1987, barely three decades after it rose.