A student of the great French architect Le Corbusier, the most devoted servant of modernism and the author of more than 600 buildings around the world, Oscar Niemeyer passed away at the age of 104, just ten days before his 105th birthday. It happened on December 5 in Niemeyer's native Rio de Janeiro. Niemeyer's buildings made a real revolution in the architecture of Brazil of the 20th century - for 80 years of his work he changed the face of this country.
Oscar Niemeyer was born December 15, 1907 in Rio de Janeiro. He attended a privileged college where he first developed an interest in architecture.
Oscar Niemeyer with his wife and daughter. 1930s
In the 1930s, any buildings in Niemeyer's homeland still copied neoclassical European architecture - the buildings looked like luxuriously decorated Baroque palaces and did not correspond in any way to the new way of life of people. However, by the will of fate, Oscar managed to break the ideas of his compatriots about how buildings should look. In the early 1940s, he met Juscelino Kubitschek, the future president of Brazil, who invited Niemeyer to develop a development project for a young city designed to become the new capital. Niemeyer agreed and after 4 years (from 1956 to 1960) he surprised the whole world with his bold futuristic buildings of administrative buildings in Brasilia. There were no more magnificent and idle buildings, so boring to the eye of the Brazilians, there were only smooth, flexible lines of new buildings, dearly loved by the architect himself.
With his works, Niemeyer not only shaped the new face of Brazilian national architecture, but also freed the country from its colonial past, which was still reflected in art, and, moreover, gave it confidence in the future. He managed to develop his own unique style in architecture and was the first to use monolithic reinforced concrete to create smooth, graceful, openwork structures.
Government Palace in Brasilia, 1960
In addition to creating buildings in Brazil, Oscar Niemeyer has also been active outside of Brazil, collaborating with foreign companies. In the early stages of his career, he became known to the world as a participant in the project to create the UN headquarters in New York. Later, during his emigration to France (due to the onset of the military dictatorship in Brazil), Niemeyer created many public buildings for Europe as well. The architect was cut off from his homeland and yearned for it, but he was able to return back only in 1985. Three years later, in 1988, Niemeyer received the main architectural award - the Pritzker Prize.
Work in his native Brazil continued until the death of the architect. When he returned, he created a memorial named after President Kubizek, a museum of modern art in Niteroi, his own museum and the Oscar Niemeyer cultural center, where the famous Brazilian carnival takes place.
Residential building "Copan" in Sao Paulo, 1951-1965
“I am not attracted to right angles and straight, unchanging and clear lines created by man. I am attracted to curves, free and sensual. Those curves that we can see in mountain silhouettes, in the form of sea waves, on the body of a beloved woman,” wrote Niemeyer in his memoir The Curves Of Time. Buro 24/7 offers to recall some of his "curvilinear" works, which left a significant mark on the history of architecture. Meanwhile, Brazil has declared a week of mourning for the departed genius today, and on Friday everyone will be able to say goodbye to Oscar Niemeyer in Rio de Janeiro.
Ibirapuera Auditorium in Ibirapuera Park, Sao Paulo, 2002
“The main thing in architecture is that it be new, touch a person’s soul, be useful to him, so that a person can enjoy it ...”
Ibirapuera Auditorium in Ibirapuera Park, Sao Paulo, 2002
"Only concrete allows me to control the bends of such a wide range ... concrete provides a continuous modulation of space"
Palace of the National Congress in Brasilia, 1960
National Museum of Brazil, 2006
“All my life I have loved to look at the clouds, waiting for revelation in their ever-changing forms”
Cathedral in Brasilia, 1960-1970
Memorial to Kubizek, 1980
"...straight lines and angles divide and divide space, and I have always loved curves, which are the essence of the nature around us"
Museum of Modern Art in Niteroi, 1996
Museum of Modern Art in Niteroi.
“A freely curved and sensual line beckons me. That line that reminds me of the mountains of my country, the bizarre bends of the rivers, the high clouds, the body of the woman I love.”
Oscar Niemeyer Foundation in Niteroi
Oscar Ribeiro di Almeida di Niemeyer Soaris Filho realized the first project (a nursery in Rio de Janeiro) in 1937, in his incomplete 30 years. The last project realized during the lifetime of the architect was the television tower in Brasilia, opened in 2012. Niemeyer worked constantly and tirelessly. On his desktop, there was a project for a restaurant building in Rio de Janeiro, on which the 104-year-old architect had been working in recent days.
The Creator is alive in his creations. And this means that more than 400 buildings built by this fantastic architect in 18 countries of the world continue the life of their Creator. At the moment, according to his project, the construction of the Pele Museum in the city of Santos is being completed. And how many more finished, but so far unrealized projects will see life thanks to colleagues and students of Niemeyer, our descendants will be able to tell.
The mention of Brazil brings to mind images of endless beaches, dancers and passions on the football field. There is hardly a place for architecture in the list of symbols of this country. While she impresses with her courage, sensuality and tropical character
Statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro
The first thing you notice in Brazil is piety people. “If God wants”, “go with God”, “with God's help” - is constantly heard in the speech of the Brazilians. Even the centenary of the country's independence, they decided to celebrate nothing more than erection of the statue of Christ the Redeemer in the then capital of Rio de Janeiro. The money collected from the population was enough to create 38-meter monument, which was hoisted at the highest point in the district - Mount Corcovado so that everyone can see where their money went. Gradually the statue has become a symbol of the city and a place of attraction for tourists from all over the world. People aspire to Christ the Redeemer not only because of the beautiful view of Rio, but also because of the energy attributed to this place. Old Jerusalem, Petra and Machu Picchu have this. You don't want to leave the observation deck near the statue - and this is the main secret of its grandiosity.
Temple of the Prophet Bosco in Brasilia
Beautiful stories are the passion of Brazilians. A midsummer night's dream in 1883 of Father Rector Bosco became the pretext for moving the capital from Rio de Janeiro to the desert in the heart of the country. The monk dreamed that between the 15th and 20th parallels of the Southern Hemisphere, a city that will become the birthplace of a new civilization. Half a century later, President Kubitschek remembered this dream and decided to go down in history as the first person in the world to build ideal city - Brasilia.
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At the heart of the city lies a dream. To show this, the architect Claudio Canopy decided to build temple, where at any time of the day - night. Because the walls of the cathedral, named after the seer, made of Murano glass 12 shades of blue. Hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the temple chandelier of 7400 crystals. It symbolizes the light that faith in God gives to the world. During the day, the temple has only natural light, and when the colors thicken, the room is filled with the radiance of a three-ton chandelier.
The cathedral does not have an altar in the usual sense, and only a relief on copper doors and a small statue remind of the prophet Bosco. The effect of magic is achieved with the help of light and silence, which you don’t even have to ask the guests of this temple.
Oscar Niemeyer Museum in Curitiba
When the famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer there was a creative block, he walked along the beach of Copacabana, looked at the girls and the steep bends of the hills. All the most beautiful lines are already created by nature, and he only needed to repeat them in his creations. It was he who created the museum in the shape of an eye, the tent church and the convention building with two plates on the roof, but most importantly, he inspired other architects to build buildings that leave no one indifferent. MON - Oskar Niemeyer Museum - located in the city of Curitiba, in the south of the country. This the biggest and the most recognizable fairground in Latin America. This is because one of the pavilions is made in the form of a huge eye that rises above an artificial lake.
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The "eye" can be accessed through the adjoining pavilion, which also houses a sculpture courtyard, exhibition halls, a cafeteria, and a gift shop. As is often the case in Niemeyer's works, entrance and exit in this museum do not match. Visitors leave the last pavilion-eye down a ribbon-like descent and almost all return to a hall dedicated to the architect and the curves that inspired him.
Cathedral in Brasilia
The columns of the cathedral, curved by boomerangs, symbolize hands raised to the sky. The space between the columns is filled with stained-glass windows, thanks to which the church building is flooded with sunlight. Oscar Niemeyer believed that the sunlight in the temple was better than candles and lamps. To show the beauty of such lighting, the architect makes the entrance to the temple through an underground tunnel. After him, the hall filled with radiance makes you close your eyes.
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Floating under the ceiling aluminum angels, glass egg above the altar as a symbol of the beginning of all things, the floor, smoothly turning into walls - it seems that you are in heaven, although in fact it is underground. For some reason, the atheist Oscar Niemeyer was especially good at churches. For this project, he received the Pritzker Prize - the architectural Oscar, as well as a long rejection of priests and a refusal to serve in a church they did not understand.
Lacerda lift in Salvador
The African heart of Brazil, the former capital and slave market, was once divided by a steep cliff into two cities: lower and upper. They say that before the Lacerda lift, the guys from the lower city tried not to fall in love with the girls from the upper one, because it was too expensive to go up in a manual Jesuit elevator.
In 1873, a mechanical lift connected the two Salvadors. and the city took on a new life. This construction of the engineer Lacerda is so loved by the townspeople that considered the capital of the state of Bahia, symbol of Salvador and appears on every third graffiti.
The lift, 72 meters high, transports about thirty thousand passengers daily for a nominal fee. The journey from the lower city to the upper one lasts half a minute, during which you can have time to exchange a few words with an elevator operator in a white shirt. Already at the top, passing through a glass corridor, it is especially pleasant to admire the bay and the bustle of the port in the lower part of the city.
Presidential palace in Brasilia
This the palace was built for an incredible amount of time only a year and a half because President Kubitschek was in a hurry to move the presidential office from Rio de Janeiro to the new capital. The short construction time did not prevent the palace from becoming the world's finest example of modernist architecture.
However, the palace is more reminiscent of the office of a computer company: a four-story glass cuboid is supported by white columns, according to the architect, like “feathers falling to the ground.” An open transparent building is a symbol of power that is accessible and close to people. There are no high fences around the president's office, nor hundreds of guards around the perimeter. Only an artificial lake with red fish, and behind - a forest.
Iber Camargo Foundation in Porto Alegre
Founded by the artist's widow the foundation is located in a quaint building on the shores of Lake Guaiba, away from the center of Porto Alegre. The museum project, created by the Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza, received the Golden Lion at the Venice Architecture Biennale and a special prize at the Milan Exhibition.
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In this building a spiral of corridors sets the direction for the movement of guests, lifting them from hall to hall - and so on to the very roof. Visitors follow the curves of the walls and corridors. No signage, signs or guides. The effect of a complete unity of man with space - such is the trace left on the land of gaucho cowboys by one of the most important architects in the world.
National Congress in Brasilia
Perhaps, the most unusual government building in the world. “I wanted to find a solution that causes surprise, a surprise effect, so that when observing from the outside, a person would have a desire to know how the building looks from the inside”, - this is how Oscar Niemeyer described his idea. The architect does not change his style: there is also artificial lake and unusual entrance - stone tongue. "Blue Hall" for meetings of senators is under an overturned plate, which, according to Niemeyer, symbolizes the work of thought. "Green Hall" for deputies located under another plate, meaning openness to all ideologies. in the towers- TV studios of direct broadcasting and offices of officials with the best view of the city.
Cathedral of Saint Sebastian in Rio de Janeiro
Not far from the historical center of Rio stands giant gray pyramid, reminiscent of the Tower of Babel from a painting by Brueghel. The bell tower next to it looks like an oil rig. This Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro. But those who do not know about it, most likely, will pass by.
Modernist churches do not beckon with the radiance of onion domes and spiers striving for the sky. The Cathedral of St. Sebastian, the patron saint of the city, attracts attention from the outside only by its shape and size. But inside thanks four huge stained glass windows created the effect of unearthly space, because of which you want to steal time from other attractions and spend it here.
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Unlike Niemeyer, the architect Edgar Fonseca leaves the church in the usual twilight. Rare rays of the sun penetrate through multi-colored stained-glass windows and freeze in bizarre patterns on the faces of parishioners who sit on comfortable wooden benches and enjoy the coolness, which is so valuable in the city of eternal summer.
Palace of Justice in Brasilia
Calming the sound of the waterfalls, lake with japanese carps and courtyard garden- For employees of the Ministry of Justice, Oscar Niemeyer created an atmosphere of absolute zen. Water falling from the walls symbolizes force of justice, a lake with green islands - calmness, and a hint of gothic style - conservatism. It is not so easy for a casual traveler to get inside the Palace of Justice. But the stone island of Brazilian justice, drifting on the calm waters of economic stability, is one of Nimeira's rare projects, which is especially beautiful from afar.
Designed by Oscar Niemeyer, the buildings are as much a Brazilian brand as coffee, football, carnival and the statue of Christ. On the eve of the opening of the XXXI Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Life #Dom talks about the main architect of Latin America, in whose work, as it turned out, there is so much Soviet.
Oscar Niemeyer died in 2012 at the age of 104, leaving behind over 400 buildings in 18 countries. The modern look of the capital Brasilia is largely his merit. His name has become synonymous with the new Brazilian architecture. For 80 years of his work, he created the architectural appearance of the two largest Brazilian cities - Rio and Brasilia, leaving behind the outdated colonial style, so familiar to Latin America.
Oscar and the UN building
He began his career in 1939 by designing the Brazil Pavilion at the New York World's Fair. But Niemeyer received architectural superstar status after he became a member of the team of architects involved in the development of the UN headquarters project in New York.The final appearance of the building was based on his ideas, which included only small additions from his teacher - Le Corbusier.
After the completion of the UN Headquarters, Niemeyer was appointed dean of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, but the US government denied him an American visa because of his membership in the Brazilian Communist Party. "Ideological enemy", they say ...
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The fundamental novelty of the approach was the fusion of the utopian and the monumental: looking at the inverted white bowls and two parallel columns, one might think that inside this space building there is a gallery of modern art or an art university, but certainly not the boring bureaucratic corridors of the National Congress of Brazil.
The same can be said about the cathedral in the form of hands raised to the sky, in which an unprepared viewer is unlikely to recognize a religious building. And even more difficult to believethat all these plastic and fluid structures are built of monolithic reinforced concrete.
The most famous buildings that Niemeyer designed in Brasilia include the Palace of the National Congress, the Palace of Government, the Ministry of Justice, the Palace of the Supreme Court, the Palace of Dawn, the Cathedral. After the proclamation of Brasília as the new capital, Niemeyer resigned as chief architect of the government and returned to the life of a private architect.
By the way, a casino in a wealthy suburb was never used for its intended purpose: in 1946, the Brazilian authorities passed a law banning gambling, and the building turned into a Museum of Modern Art.
Oscar and the Communists
In his youth, Niemeyer was interested in communist ideology, and in 1945 he joined the Brazilian Communist Party, which twenty years later became a serious problem for him: then the government was overthrown in a military coup.
Oscar Niemeyer sympathized with the USSR, knew Fidel Castro, and in 1963 won the Lenin Prize for "strengthening peace among peoples."
Due to his leftist views, he had to flee the country in 1965 and settle in France, where he began designing residential buildings for Europe and North Africa, as well as designing furniture.
Niemeyer designed the headquarters of the Communist Party in Paris in 1985, and a little later - at the end of the military dictatorship - returned to his homeland.
Russia, unfortunately, is not included in the list of countries where Niemeyer left an architectural mark. But, despite this, the Brazilian has a lot in common with the Soviet constructivists: the same adherence to the principles of functionalism, the choice of clean lines and white as opposed to any ornaments and textures, as well as projects for the construction of mass housing. The only thing in which he, perhaps, differed from them was his love for smooth lines and curves instead of sharp corners and clear lines.
One of the most famous mass housing projects was the residential building "Copan" in São Paulo, resembling a frozen sea wave - the largest residential complex in Latin America. On an area of 6000 m² fit 38 floors and almost 5 thousand inhabitants. "Copan" even has its own postal code. This work echoes Le Corbusier's "Housing Unit" in Marseille and communal houses in the USSR.
Oscar gets an Oscar
The 80s of the 20th century were a time of critical rethinking of constructivism, when such living classics of architecture as Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, who at one time proposed blowing up European cities in order to build them up with the same "machine houses for living", were subjected to skepticism.
It was obvious that the communist project was failing all over the world, and criticism of the artistic principles of an ideology that had lost its relevance was taken for granted.
The Brazilian utopia was also criticized: Brasilia became a symbol of the decline of modernism and the unfulfilled promises of a brighter future. Huge empty squares filled with monumental white buildings surrounded by slums seemed to be a symbol of extreme social inequality and alienation.
And in the late 80s, Niemeyer finally received the architectural "Oscar" - the Pritzker Prize. In his acceptance speech, he said: "My architecture follows the old principle where beauty prevails over the limitations of constructivist logic."
Oscar Niemeyer continued to work well into old age. In 1996, at the age of 89, he designs and builds the Museum of Modern Art in Niteroi, a fantastic flying saucer hovering over a cliff near the Atlantic Ocean.
One of the last projects of the great architect was the concert hall "Ibirapuera" in Sao Paulo. The red visor above the entrance resembles a long protruding tongue - this is how the almost century-old architect "showed his tongue" to the whole world.
A student of the great French architect Le Corbusier, the most devoted servant of modernism and the author of more than 600 buildings around the world, Oscar Niemeyer passed away at the age of 104, just ten days before his 105th birthday. It happened on December 5 in Niemeyer's native Rio de Janeiro. The buildings of Niemeyer made a real revolution in the architecture of Brazil of the XX century -for 80 years of his work, he changed the face of this country.
In the 1930s, any buildings in Niemeyer's homeland still copied neoclassical European architecture - the buildings looked like luxuriously decorated Baroque palaces and did not correspond in any way to the new way of life of people. However, by the will of fate, Oscar managed to break the ideas of his compatriots about how buildings should look. In the early 1940s, he met Juscelino Kubitschek, the future president of Brazil, who invited Niemeyer to develop a development project for a young city designed to become the new capital. Niemeyer agreed and after 4 years (from 1956 to 1960) he surprised the whole world with his bold futuristic buildings of administrative buildings in Brasilia. There were no more magnificent and idle buildings, so boring to the eye of the Brazilians, there were only smooth, flexible lines of new buildings, dearly loved by the architect himself. With his works, Niemeyer not only shaped the new face of Brazilian national architecture, but also freed the country from its colonial past, which was still reflected in art, and, moreover, gave it confidence in the future. He managed to develop his own unique style in architecture and was the first to use monolithic reinforced concrete to create smooth, graceful, openwork structures.
Government Palace in Brasilia, 1960
In addition to creating buildings in Brazil, Oscar Niemeyer has also been active outside of Brazil, collaborating with foreign companies. In the early stages of his career, he became known to the world as a participant in the project to create the UN headquarters in New York. Later, during his emigration to France (due to the onset of the military dictatorship in Brazil), Niemeyer created many public buildings for Europe as well. The architect was cut off from his homeland and yearned for it, but he was able to return back only in 1985. Three years later, in 1988, Niemeyer received the main architectural award.- The Pritzker Prize.
Work in his native Brazil continued until the death of the architect. When he returned, he created a memorial named after President Kubizek, a museum of modern art in Niteroi, his own museum and the Oscar Niemeyer cultural center, where the famous Brazilian carnival takes place.
Residential building "Copan" in Sao Paulo, 1951-1965
“I am not attracted to right angles and straight, unchanging and clear lines created by man. I am attracted to curves, free and sensual. Those curves that we can see in mountain silhouettes, in the form of sea waves, on the body of a beloved woman,” wrote Niemeyer in his memoir The Curves Of Time. Buro 24/7 offers to recall some of his "curvilinear" works, which left a significant mark on the history of architecture. In the meantime, Brazil has declared a week of mourning for the departed genius today, and on Friday everyone will be able to say goodbye to Oscar Niemeyer in Rio de Janeiro.
Ibirapuera Auditorium in Ibirapuera Park, Sao Paulo, 2002
Ibirapuera Auditorium in Ibirapuera Park, Sao Paulo, 2002
Palace of the National Congress in Brasilia, 1960
National Museum of Brazil, 2006
Cathedral in Brasilia, 1960-1970
Memorial to Kubizek, 1980
Museum of Modern Art in Niteroi, 1996
Oscar Niemeyer Museum in Curitiba, 2002
Oscar Niemeyer Museum in Curitiba, 2002
Text: Gayana Demurina
Born in Rio de Janeiro. Entered the National Art School in Rio de Janeiro (1930-34). While still at school, he began working under the guidance of Lucio Costa (1932).
In 1936, when the Brazilian government invited Le Corbusier to lecture in aid of Lucio Costa to build the university, Niemeyer was included in the group of architects working with him. Niemeyer became Corbusier's closest assistant and later chief architect on the construction of the buildings of the Ministry of Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro (1936-45). Despite the strong influence of Corbusier, Niemeyer managed to develop his own style. His style is more flamboyant and lyrical than that of Corbusier. On the construction of the UN building, they again work together.
In 1956, a construction competition new Brazilian capital won by Lucio Costa. Niemeyer was invited as a technical consultant, which allowed him to design the most important objects of the new capital: residence complex palace and others. The expressiveness of the development carried out by Niemeyer was achieved due to the contrast of unusual forms - domed, pyramidal, bowl-shaped. Construction work on the Brazilian capital continued until 1964, when the government was overthrown and he moved to France.
In the 70s he built public buildings for Ghana, Lebanon, France, Italy, Algeria. These include complex for Mondadori publishing house (1975) in Milan and headquarters of the French Communist Party in Paris (1966-71).
Laureate of the Lenin Prize (1962).
His works are characterized by a combination of modern technology and love for the free forms of the so-called Brazilian Baroque.
The innovative development of reinforced concrete structures, the search for their aesthetic expressiveness determined the courage and freedom of planning decisions, expression and great plastic richness of forms.
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