Brasília
[key], capital city and federal district of Brazil (2,264 sq mi/5,864 sq
km; 2021 est. metro area pop. 4,728,000), an enclave in the southwest of
Goiás state. Inaugurated in 1960, it is situated in the highlands of
central Brazil, and its ultramodern public buildings (designed by Oscar
Niemeyer Soares)
dominate what had been sparsely settled countryside. The removal of the
capital from Rio de Janeiro to
the interior, to encourage the development of central Brazil, was advocated
long before President Juscelino Kubitschek initiated the project in 1956.
The city was laid out (1957) in the shape of an airplane by the Brazilian
architect Lúcio Costa. Government
services, small-scale industry, food services, and construction are
economically important. Most of Brasília's people live in its
suburbs, outside the monumental government core.
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