Rio de Janeiro (Brasil), 1907 – 2012
By Roberto Segre
For someone who stated that “what matters is life, not architecture,” due to its fleeting duration (almost a breath), it is paradoxical that he carried out more than five hundred projects – with a hundred of them built, many of which were integrated into the history of 20th-century world architecture – and maintained his prominence until the dawn of the 21st century.
The inventiveness, creativity, and originality of his work made the Brazilian Oscar Niemeyer a global symbol of Latin American architecture, recognized urbe et orbi, as attested by the awards from important cultural and professional institutions: the Pritzker Prize (1988) in the United States; the Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects – RIBA (1999) in the United Kingdom; and the Praemium Imperiale (2004) in Japan. In turn, in 2001, the Institute of Architects of Brazil (IAB) named him “Architect of the 20th Century.”
In addition to his unquestionable professional level, he added a political and social commitment to the progressive forces of the globe. A militant of the Brazilian Communist Party since 1945, he never deviated from his clear ideological principles of unwavering support for the revolutionary left, from Cuba to the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) in Brazil. Thus, he received the Lenin Peace Prize in 1962, at the time of Khrushchev’s criticism of Stalinism. Although this position prevented him from entering the United States – in 1946 and 1967 – thereby making it impossible for him to teach at prestigious universities in that country, the French Minister of Culture, André Malraux, allowed him to work in France and, in 1979, awarded him the Order of the Legion of Honor. In 1989, Pope John Paul II appointed him Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great, and in the same year, Niemeyer received Spain’s most prestigious cultural recognition – the Prince of Asturias Award for Fine Arts.
Graduating as an architect in 1934 from the National School of Fine Arts (ENBA) in Rio de Janeiro, he began his professional experience in Lúcio Costa’s studio, who, in 1936, integrated him into the team working on the Ministry of Education and Health (MES) project.
With Le Corbusier’s stay in Rio de Janeiro for a month to collaborate with the group of professionals, Niemeyer – the youngest member – worked with the master and drew his architectural proposals. This experience marked his path, not only through the assimilation of conceptual statements but also through the discovery of the hedonistic landscape around the capital, with its beaches, rocky outcrops, forests, and mountains, which would inspire – along with female imagery – the persistent curves of his works. The awakening of his originality occurred in the key idea of the definitive solution for the MES (1937), based on Le Corbusier’s sketches. Shortly afterward, he won second place in the design for the Brazil Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair (1939). Lúcio Costa, the first-place winner, invited him to propose a new solution – one of the best in the exhibition – characterized by its light ramps, curvilinear slabs, perforated ceramic walls, and the formal freedom of the green areas. These fragmented elaborations would mature in the Pampulha complex in Belo Horizonte (1940-1942) and the beginning of a close relationship with Juscelino Kubitschek throughout his political career: first, as mayor of Belo Horizonte, then as governor of Minas Gerais, and finally as president of Brazil.
On the outskirts of Belo Horizonte, Kubitschek proposed a residential development along the shores of a lake and commissioned Niemeyer to design the social buildings: the Casino, the Dance Hall, the Church of São Francisco, and the Yacht Club. There, the basic elements of his vocabulary emerged: the forms of free and light reinforced concrete curves; the dynamism of the interior spaces; the unusual and almost sculptural compositional freedom of the typological solutions, as seen in the church; and the integration with the visual arts and the natural landscape.
The small scale of the Pampulha works – which reached its expressive climax in his residence in Canoas (1953) – evolved into the large scale of the projects carried out in the 1950s, starting in 1947 with the design of the United Nations headquarters in New York, in collaboration with Le Corbusier. Other significant works include the gigantic curvilinear volume of the COPAN building in São Paulo (1950); the towers of the Juscelino Kubitschek residential complex in Belo Horizonte (1951); and the exhibition complex of Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo (1951), whose sinuous marquee, several hundred meters long, linking different buildings, took on the character of a large public square in the city.
Thus, Niemeyer achieved full mastery of architecture on an urban scale, which allowed him to face the challenge of the new capital envisioned by Kubitschek. Brasília – conceived by Lúcio Costa and realized during Kubitschek’s presidency (1955-1960) – was defined in its symbolic and monumental expression by dozens of buildings designed by Niemeyer. Each governmental body had its own iconic identity, with the light and sculptural columns of the Palácio da Alvorada – the presidential residence – the suspended volumes of the Congress at the Praça dos Três Poderes; the slow rhythm of the buildings on the Esplanada dos Ministérios; the transparency of the arches of the Palácio Itamaraty; the muscular structural ribs of the Cathedral; and the massive volume of the National Theater.
With the establishment of the military dictatorship (1964-1984), Niemeyer was forced to live and work abroad. He was invited to design numerous buildings in Algeria, Israel, France, and Italy. The main projects include the headquarters of the French Communist Party in Paris (1965-1967); the University of Constantine in Algiers (1969-1972); and the offices of Editorial Mondadori in Milan (1968-1975).
With the return of democracy, he participated in the ambitious construction plan by Leonel Brizola, then governor of the State of Rio de Janeiro, which seeded hundreds of elementary schools – the CIEPs (1984) – built by Niemeyer using prefabricated reinforced concrete elements; as well as the Samba Walkway (1983), which became a vital center for Rio de Janeiro’s carnival. It is impossible to summarize his numerous works carried out in the last two decades of the 20th century.
In terms of urban scale, the Memorial da América Latina in São Paulo (1988) and the collection of buildings in Caminho Niemeyer in Niterói (1996-2004) stand out, with the “flower” structure of the Contemporary Art Museum dominating, which is the largest concentration of the master’s buildings in a Brazilian municipality. Finally, one cannot forget the series of monuments designed in tribute to progressive movements: to the MST (Landless Workers’ Movement); to Tancredo Neves in Brasília; to the Torture Never Again movement in Rio de Janeiro; and against the United States’ blockade of Cuba in Havana.
Ten days before turning 105, in December 2012, he passed away due to respiratory complications. His body was laid in state at the Palácio do Planalto in Brasília and buried in Rio de Janeiro.
