The architectural style of Libria, the fictitious city of Equilibrium, owes much of its credit to the Fascist movement that occurred prior to the Second World War in Germany and Italy. Berlin's Olympic Stadium, built for the 1936 Olympics, and Il Palazzo dei Congressi, built to commemorate the Universal Exhibition of Rome in 1942 were featured in Equilibrium several times. These structures were used as a tool to emphasize the passage of time and express a potential architectural future. Similar to Libria in the sense of an architectural utopia, the city of Brasília exudes modernity. Designed from the beginning as "an architect's, rather than a planner's, city," (Evenson, 117) the city carries a homogenized appearance with most of the principal buildings designed by Oscar Niemeyer. The aforementioned projects were designed to display power, to celebrate art and history, to instil national pride, and above all else, to create architecture that would stand the test of time and ride into the future.

Berlin's Olympic Stadium (Olympiastadion), designed by Werner March for the 1936 Olympics, was a central piece to the massive Olympic complex. After the Nazi Party had come to power in 1933, it was decided that the Olympics would be used as a form of propaganda for the Nation. So, it became very important that the stadium stand out as a symbol of power, strength, and longevity. Faced in stone, the sweeping open air corridors evoke images of the Coliseum and other symbols of the Roman Empire. Though Rome has fallen, many of it's finest structures still stand strong and tell the story of the most powerful, and far reaching empire that the world has ever seen. What better way to establish a nation as something eternal, be it the Third Reich or the Librian society, than to model the architecture after something that has already been standing for 2000 years?

Used in the first moments of Equilibrium to establish the style and feel for the film, Il Palazzo dei Congressi was built to commemorate the Universal Exhibition of Rome in 1942, which was cancelled due to the Second World War. It was constructed between 1938 and 1954 and remains a shining example of Rationalist architecture with its "modern lines and classical taste" (Palazzo dei Congressi). It is because of its clean, timeless style that makes Il Palazzo dei Congressi a perfect candidate to establish Libria as a future society. It can be compared easily to classical architecture, especially in Rome, through the choice of materials, proportions, and powerful appearance and so would stand well in a past world. However, it could easily belong in some future society, as it bears no markings of time, no ornate details of past architectural movements, and no associated iconography. It is in effect, a clean slate, able to be adopted into a future society.

Brasilia, a city planned by one architect and designed by another, stands as a testament to one country's will to assert itself in the modern world by building itself a modern city. The base plan competition for Brasilia was held in 1956 and was won by Brazilian architect, Lucio Costa, while the city's development was headed by Oscar Niemeyer, also a Brazilian. Subject to much criticism due to its hasty construction, lack of planning professionals, and general break from convention in the planning of a city, Brasilia definitely does not exhibit all the qualities associated with what is considered a great city. Brasilia has been described as, "an architect's full-scale mockup - a bland and sketchy idea in need of greater detailing. If one thinks of a city as a human settlement imbued with the richness of history, with the patina of a long and varied human experience, with the physical complexity and architectural diversity resulting from a long series of adjustments, additions, and design decisions, Brasilia is not yet a city at all" (Evenson, 104).

But where Brasilia fails as a city, it succeeds in creating an architectural representation of the future. The fact that it still stands incomplete, undeveloped, and undecided as a city gives it a quality that so many successful cities lack; the ability to morph into something new. This "unfinished masterpiece" (Polidori, 56) has the bones of a city laid and is awaiting the flesh that time and culture will bring. Sometimes the representation of the future appears in the open spaces that are left by our past mistakes.