Lúcio Costa (Toulon, February 27, 1902-Rio de Janeiro, June 13, 1998) was a Franco-Brazilian architect and urban planner.

Pioneer of modern architecture in Brazil. Known worldwide for the Brasilia Pilot Plan project, Lúcio Costa grew up in different countries due to the official activities of his father, Admiral Joaquim Ribeiro da Costa. He studied at the Royal Grammar School in Newcastle (United Kingdom), and at the Collège National in Montreux (Switzerland).[1]​.

He returned to Brazil in 1917 and later began to study architecture at the Escola de Belas Artes of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. There he was first trained in neoclassical and neocolonial architecture, but then he broke with the historicist training of the school and was influenced by the work of Le Corbusier.[2]​.

He partnered with the Russian architect Gregori Warchavchik, who built the first modern architecture project in Brazil. In 1932 he was appointed for a few months as director of the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes, where he implemented a course in modern architecture. Among his students was the young Oscar Niemeyer.[3]​.

Aware of the importance of his generation in the cultural change of the country, Costa convinced Le Corbusier to go live in Brazil in 1936 to give a series of conferences.[4]​.

Of prolific creation in those years, Lúcio Costa in 1957 sent a preliminary project in the competition launched to create the new capital of the country, contravening some rules of the competition.[5]​ Despite this, he won almost unanimously, suffering various accusations from the other applicants. He developed the Pilot Plan of Brasilia and, like Niemeyer, became known throughout the world as the author of a large part of the public property of that city.[2]​.

Lúcio Costa died in Rio de Janeiro in 1998, the city where he lived most of his life. He left two daughters, María Elisa, also an architect, and Helena.[6]​.