The Lucio Costa Archive exhibition opens on 18 April with two days of free activities

The exhibition ‘Lucio Costa Archive’ draws on the personal collection of the renowned Brazilian urban planner, which was donated by his family to the Casa da Arquitetura in 2021.

Comprising 11,000 documents of varying types and scales, ranging from the original drawings of the Pilot Plan for Brasília to simple family photographs, this documentary collection includes poems by his mother, travel receipts, plane tickets, notes from his daughters, drawings, various correspondence and some films, amongst many other records, offering an unprecedented insight into the more personal and everyday life of the so-called “Father of Brasília”.

Organised into six sections – Family, Writings, Portugal, Pilot Plan, Brasília and Drawing – the Lucio Costa Archive constructs a journey richly illustrated by the urban planner and architect’s private life, whilst also offering insights into other aspects and spheres of his public and professional life, notably the four trips he made to our country between the 1940s and 1960s, partly documented in the famous “Portugal Notebooks”.

With the originals of the Plano Piloto de Brasília, rarely exhibited in Europe, at the heart of this exhibition, Lucio Costa Arquivo also proposes, according to the curator, architect Ana Vaz Milheiro, another challenge: that of “confronting the contemporary”, that is, the challenge of examining this legacy in the light of the questions raised today regarding the motivations, influences and innovative drive of the man who created a new capital for Brazil and left an indelible mark on contemporary architecture.

Running until September 2026, the Lucio Costa Archive exhibition thus offers an unusual insight into the domestic and intimate corners of one of the most fascinating figures of modern Brazil, whilst inviting visitors to explore his more public facets, which established him as one of the most influential architects of the last century.