Which French-born, Brazilian architect and urban planner is associated with the axiom 'Each one sees whatever he wishes to see'?

• A. Lucio Costa
• B. Buckminster Fuller
• C. Peter Behrens
• D. Robert Adam

Answer: (A)

The idea being tested is how a designer’s work invites multiple readings and how a space can be interpreted differently by different people. The axiom in question reflects a mindset that urban form carries subjective meanings for its users, rather than a single fixed reading.

Lucio Costa embodies this in connection with Brasília. As the planner of the city’s master plan, he created a framework—the Pilot Plan—that is monumental and orderly yet flexible in use. The design invites varied experiences: long sightlines along the axes, distinct zones for living, working, and leisure, and spaces that people read in personal ways depending on their role, daily routine, and moment in time. This makes the attribution feel fitting, because Costa’s work is about designing environments that people inhabit and interpret from many perspectives, not just one rigid interpretation.

The other figures are influential for different contributions: Fuller for large-scale structural concepts, Behrens for early 20th-century German design practice, and Adam for 18th-century neoclassical architecture. They don’t align with the Brazilian urban-perception idea in the same way, so the best match for this statement remains Lucio Costa.