Early life and education Niemeyer was born in the city of
Rio de Janeiro on 15 December 1907. He spent his youth as a typical young
Carioca of the time:
bohemian and relatively unconcerned with his future. In 1928, at age 21, Niemeyer left school (Santo Antonio Maria Zaccaria priory school) and married Annita Baldo,). The contact with Costa would be important to Niemeyer's maturation. After an initial flirtation with the
Neocolonial movement, Costa believed that the advances of the
International Style in Europe were the way forward for architecture. His writings on the insights that could unite Brazil's traditional colonial architecture (such as that in
Olinda) with modernist principles would be the basis of the architecture that he and his contemporaries, such as
Affonso Eduardo Reidy, would later realize. In 1936, at the age of 29, Lúcio Costa was appointed by Education Minister Gustavo Capanema to design the new headquarters of the
Ministry of Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro. Costa himself, although open to change, was unsure of how to proceed. He assembled a group of young architects (Carlos Leão, Affonso Eduardo Reidy, Jorge Moreira and Ernani Vasconcellos) to design the building. He also insisted that
Le Corbusier himself should be invited as a consultant. Though Niemeyer was not initially part of the team, Costa agreed to accept him after Niemeyer insisted. During the period of Le Corbusier's stay in Rio, he was appointed to help the master with his drafts, which allowed him a close contact with the Swiss. After his departure, Niemeyer's significant changes to Corbusier's scheme impressed Costa, who allowed him to progressively take charge of the project, of which he assumed leadership in 1939.
Brazilian modernism , Rio de Janeiro The Ministry of Education had assumed the task of shaping the "
novo homem, Brasileiro e moderno" (new man, Brazilian and modern). It was the first state-sponsored
modernist skyscraper in the world, of a much larger scale than anything Le Corbusier had built until then. Completed in 1943, when he was 36 years old, the building that housed the regulator and manager of Brazilian culture and cultural heritage developed the elements of what was to become recognized as Brazilian modernism. It employed local materials and techniques, like the
azulejos linked to the Portuguese tradition; the revolutionized Corbusian
brises-soleil, made adjustable and related to the Moorish shading devices of colonial architecture; bold colors; the tropical gardens of
Roberto Burle Marx; the
Imperial Palm (
Roystonea oleracea), known as the Brazilian order; further allusions to the icons of the Brazilian landscape; and specially commissioned works by Brazilian artists. This building is considered by some architects as one of the most influential of the 20th century. It was taken as a model on how to blend low- and high-rise structures (
Lever House).
1939 New York World's Fair In 1939, at age 32, Niemeyer and Costa designed the Brazilian pavilion for the
New York World's Fair (executed in collaboration with
Paul Lester Wiener). Neighbouring the much larger French pavilion, the Brazilian structure contrasted with its heavy mass. Costa explained that the Brazilian Pavilion adopted a language of 'grace and elegance', lightness and spatial fluidity, with an open plan, curves and free walls, which he termed 'Ionic', contrasting it to the mainstream contemporary modernist architecture, which he termed 'Doric'. Impressed by its avant-garde design, Mayor
Fiorello La Guardia awarded Niemeyer the keys to the city of New York. In 1937, Niemeyer was invited by a relative to design a nursery for philanthropic institution which catered for young mothers, the
Obra do Berço. It would become his first finalised work. However, Niemeyer has said that his architecture really began in Pampulha, Minas Gerais, and as he explained in an interview,
Pampulha was the starting point of this freer architecture full of curves which I still love even today. It was in fact, the beginning of Brasília .... He also expanded upon Corbusier's idea of a
promenade architecturale with his designs for floating catwalk-like ramps which unfold open vistas to the occupants. The small restaurant (
Casa do Baile), which is perhaps the least
bourgeois of the complex, is built on its own artificial island and comprises an approximately circular block from which a free-form marquee follows the contour of the island. Although free form had been used even in Corbusier's and Mies's architecture, its application on an outdoors marquee was Niemeyer's innovation. This application of free-form, together with the butterfly roof used at the Yacht Club and Kubitschek's house became extremely fashionable from then on. , Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais The
Church of Saint Francis of Assisi is considered the masterpiece of the complex. When it was built,
reinforced concrete was used in traditional ways, such as in pillar, beam and slab structures.
Auguste Perret, in Casablanca and
Robert Maillart in Zurich had experimented with the plastic freedom of concrete, taking advantage of the
parabolic arch's geometry to build extremely thin shells. Niemeyer's decision to use such an economical approach, based on the inherent plasticity allowed by reinforced concrete was revolutionary. According to Joaquim Cardoso, the unification of wall and roof into a single element was revolutionary for fusing vertical and horizontal elements. The church's exuberance added to the integration between architecture and art. The church is covered by Azulejos by
Portinari and tile murals by Paulo Werneck. It led to the church being seen as
baroque. Though some European purists condemned its formalism, the fact that the form's idea was directly linked to a logical, structural reason placed the building in the 20th century, while refusing to break completely from the past. Due to its importance in the history of architecture, the church was the first listed modern building in Brazil. This fact did not influence the conservative church authorities of Minas Gerais, who refused to consecrate it until 1959, in part because of its unorthodox form and in part because of Portinari's altar
mural, which depicts Saint Francis as the savior of the ill, the poor and, most importantly, the sinner. Niemeyer stated that Pampulha offered him the opportunity to 'challenge the monotony of contemporary architecture, the wave of misinterpreted functionalism that hindered it and the dogmas of form and function that had emerged, counteracting the plastic freedom that reinforced concrete introduced. I was attracted by the curve – the liberated, sensual curve suggested by the possibilities of new technology yet so often recalled in venerable old baroque churches. [...] I deliberately disregarded the right angle and rationalist architecture designed with ruler and square to boldly enter the world of curves and straight lines offered by reinforced concrete. [...] This deliberate protest arose from the environment in which I lived, with its white beaches, its huge mountains, its old baroque churches and the beautiful suntanned women.' They would be partners in many projects in the next 10 years.
1940s and 1950s With the success of Pampulha and the Brazil Builds exhibition, Niemeyer achieved international recognition. His architecture further developed the
Brazilian style that the Saint Francis of Assisi Church and, to a lesser extent (due to its primary Corbusian language) the Ministry building, had pioneered. Works of this period shows the traditional modernist method in which form follows function, but Niemeyer's (and other Brazilian architects) handling of scale, proportion and program allowed him to resolve complex problems with simple and intelligent plans. Stamo Papadaki in his monography on Niemeyer mentioned the spatial freedom that characterized his work. The headquarters of the Banco Boavista, inaugurated in 1948 show such an approach. Dealing with a typical urban site, Niemeyer adopted creative solutions to enliven the otherwise monolithic high rise, thus challenging the predominant solidity which was the norm for bank buildings. The glazed south façade (with least insulation) reflects the 19th century
Candelária Church, showing Niemeyer's sensitivity to the surroundings and older architecture. Such austere designs to high rises within urban grids can also be seen in the Edifício Montreal (1951–1954), Edifício Triângulo (1955) and the Edifício Sede do Banco Mineiro da Produção. In 1947, Niemeyer returned to New York City to integrate the international team working on the design for the
United Nations headquarters. Niemeyer's scheme 32 was approved by the Board of Design, but he eventually gave in to pressure by Le Corbusier, and together they submitted project 23/32 (developed with Bodiansky and Weissmann), which combined elements from Niemeyer's and Le Corbusier's schemes. Despite Le Corbusier's insistence to remain involved, the design was carried forward by the Director of Planning,
Wallace Harrison and
Max Abramovitz, then a partnership.
Tremaine House (unbuilt) This stay in the United States also facilitated contact regarding the unbuilt Burton G. Tremaine house project, one of Niemeyer's boldest residential designs. Amidst gardens by
Roberto Burle Marx, it featured an open plan in Montecito, California on the Pacific Ocean. In February–April 1949, the Museum of Modern Art exhibited
From Le Corbusier to Niemeyer: Savoye House – Tremaine House 1949. According to the museum, "The theme of this show is based on Henry Russell-Hitchcock's book on the
Miller Company Collection of Abstract Art, Painting toward architecture...". In 2010, Berry Bergdoll, a curator at MoMA asserted the importance of the exhibition as fusing strands of the geometric and organic soon after WWII. Hitchcock's seminal essay in the
Painting toward architecture book included an illustration of Niemeyer's design, and in an associated 28-venue exhibition, Burle-Marx's
Design for a garden (1948) was exhibited in several shows, as was a photo mural of Church at Pampulha. Niemeyer produced very few designs for the United States because his affiliation to the
Communist Party usually prevented him from obtaining a visa. This happened in 1946 when he was invited to teach at
Yale University, when his political views cost him a visa. In 1953, at 46, Niemeyer was appointed dean of the
Harvard Graduate School of Design, but because of his political views the United States government denied his visa therefore preventing him from entering the country. In 1950 the first book about his work to be published in the United States,
The Work of Oscar Niemeyer by Stamo Papadaki, was released. It was the first systematic study of his architecture, which significantly contributed to the awareness of his work abroad. It would be followed in 1956 by
Oscar Niemeyer: Works in Progress, by the same author. By this time, Niemeyer was already self-confident and following his own path internationally. In 1948 Niemeyer departed from the parabolic arches he had designed in Pampulha to further explore his signature material, concrete. s Niemeyer's formal creativity has been compared to that of sculptors. In the 1950s, a time of intensive construction in Brazil produced numerous commissions. Yves Bruand stressed that Niemeyer's 1948 project for a theatre next to the Ministry of Education and Health allowed him to develop his vocabulary. In 1950 he was asked to design
São Paulo's
Ibirapuera Park for the city's 400th anniversary celebration. The plan, which consisted of several porticoed pavilions related via a gigantic free form marquee, had to be simplified due to cost. The resulting buildings were less interesting individually, which meant that the ensemble effect became the dominant aesthetic experience. Niemeyer developed V-shaped pilotis for the project, which became fashionable for a time. A variation on that theme was the W-shaped piloti which supports the
Governador Juscelino Kubitschek housing complex (1951), two large buildings containing around 1,000 apartments. Its design was based on Niemeyer's scheme for the Quitandinha apartment hotel in
Petrópolis designed one year earlier, but never realised. At 33 stories and over 400 meters long, it was to contain 5,700 living units together with communal services such as shops, schools etc., his version of Corbusier's
Unité d'Habitation. In 1954 Niemeyer also designed the "Niemeyer apartment building" at the
Praça da Liberdade, Belo Horizonte. The building's completely free form layout is reminiscent of
Mies van der Rohe's 1922 glass skyscraper, although with a much more material feel than the airy German one. Also in 1954 as part of the same plaza Niemeyer built a library the (Biblioteca Pública Estadual). During this period Niemeyer built several residences. Among them were a weekend house for his father, in Mendes (1949), developed from a chicken coop, the Prudente de Morais Neto house, in Rio (1943–49), based on Niemeyer's original design for Kubitschek's house in Pampulha, a house for Gustavo Capanema (1947) (the minister who commissioned the Ministry of Education and Health building), the Leonel Miranda house (1952), featuring two spiral ramps which provide access to the butterfly-roofed first floor, lifted up on oblique piloti. These houses featured the same inclined façade used in the Tremaine design, which allowed good natural lighting. In 1954 he built the famous Cavanelas house, with its tent-like metallic roof and which, with the help of Burle Marx's gardens, is perfectly adapted to its mountainous site. However, his residential (and free-form architecture) masterpiece is considered to be the 1953 Canoas House Niemeyer built for himself. The house is located on sloped terrain overlooking the ocean from afar. It comprises two floors, the first of which is under a free form roof, supported on thin metallic columns. The living quarters is located on the floor below and is more traditionally divided. The design takes advantage of the uneven terrain so that the house seems not to disturb the landscape. Although the house is extremely well-suited to its environment, it did not escape criticism. Niemeyer recalled that
Walter Gropius, who was visiting the country as a jury in the second Biennial exhibition in São Paulo, argued that the house could not be mass-produced, to which Niemeyer responded that the house was designed with himself in mind and for that particular site, not a general flat one. For Henry-Russell Hitchcock, the house at Canoas was Niemeyer's most extreme lyrical statement, placing rhythm and dance as the antithesis of utility.
Depoimento In 1953 modern Brazilian architecture, which had been praised since Brazil Builds, became the target of international criticism, mainly from rationalists. Niemeyer's architecture in particular was criticised by
Max Bill in an interview for Manchete Magazine. He attacked Niemeyer's use of free-form as purely decorative (as opposed to Reidy's Pedregulho housing), his use of mural panels and the individualistic character of his architecture which "is in risk of falling in a dangerous anti-social academicism". He even belittled Niemeyer's V piloti, as purely aesthetic. Niemeyer's first response was denial, followed by a counterattack based on Bill's patronizing attitude, which prevented him from considering the differing social and economic realities of Brazil and European countries. Costa also stressed that Brazilian (and Niemeyer's) architecture was based on unskilled work which allowed for a crafted architecture based on concrete, expressing a tradition of (Brazilian) church builders, as opposed to (Swiss) clock builders. , São Paulo Although it was badly received and to an extent an exaggeration, Bill's words were effective in bringing to attention the mediocre architecture coming from less talented architects, who employed Niemeyer's vocabulary in the decorative fashion that Bill had criticised. Niemeyer himself admitted that for a certain period he had "handled too many commissions, executing them in a hurry, trusting the improvisational skills he believed to have". The
Califórnia Building (Edifício Califórnia) in São Paulo is an example. Usually neglected by its creator, it features the V piloti which had worked so well in isolated buildings, creating a different treatment to that space without the need for two separate structural systems as Corbusier had done in Marseille. Its use in a typical urban context was formalistic and even compromised the building's structural logic in that it required many different sized supports. Berlin's 1957 Interbau exhibition gave Niemeyer the chance to build an example of his architecture in Germany along with the chance to visit Europe for the first time. The contact with the monuments of the old world had a lasting impact on Niemeyer's views, which he now believed was completely dependent on its aesthetic qualities. Together with his own realisations of how Brazilian architecture had been harmed by untalented architects, this trip led Niemeyer to revise his approach, which he published as a text named
Depoimento in his Módulo Magazine. He proposed a simplification, discarding multiple elements such as brises, sculptural piloti and marquees. His architecture from then on would be a pure expression of structure as a representation of solid volumes. His design method would also change, prioritizing aesthetic impact over programmatic functions, given that for him "when form creates beauty, it has in beauty itself its justification". In 1955, at 48, Niemeyer designed the
Museum of Modern Art in Caracas. The design of this museum was the material realization of his work revision. Meant to rise from the top of a cliff overlooking central
Caracas, the museum had an inverted pyramid shape which dominated and overpowered its surroundings. The opaque prismatic building had almost no connection to the outside through its walls, although its glass ceiling allowed natural light to enter. An electronic system was used to keep lighting conditions unchanged throughout the day using artificial light to complement it. The interior, however, was more recognizably done in Niemeyer's mode, with cat-walk ramps linking the different levels and the mezzanine made as a free-form slab hung from ceiling beams. This aesthetic simplicity would culminate in his work in Brasília, where the qualities of the buildings are expressed by their structural elements alone.
Design of Brasília Juscelino Kubitschek visited Niemeyer at the Canoas House in September 1956, soon after he assumed the Brazilian presidency. While driving back to the city, the politician spoke to the architect about his most audacious scheme: "I am going to build a new capital for this country and I want you to help me [...] Oscar, this time we are going to build the capital of Brazil." Niemeyer organized a competition for the lay-out of
Brasília, the new capital, and the winner was the project of his old master and great friend,
Lúcio Costa. Niemeyer would design the buildings, Lúcio the layout of the city. In the space of a few months, Niemeyer designed residential, commercial and government buildings. Among them were the residence of the President (
Palácio da Alvorada), the chamber of deputies, the
National Congress of Brazil, the
Cathedral of Brasília (a
hyperboloid structure), diverse ministries. Viewed from above, the city can be seen to have elements that repeat themselves in every building, achieving a formal unity. Behind the construction of Brasília lay a monumental campaign to construct an entire city in the barren center of the country, hundreds of kilometers from any major city. The brainchild of Kubitschek, Niemeyer had as aims included stimulating industry, integrating the country's distant areas, populating inhospitable regions and bringing progress to a region where only cattle ranching then existed. Niemeyer and Costa used it to test new concepts of city planning: streets without traffic, buildings floating off the ground supported by columns and allowing the space underneath to be free and integrated with nature. The project adopted a socialist ideology: in Brasília all the apartments would be owned by the government and rented to employees. Brasília did not have "nobler" regions, meaning that top ministers and common laborers would share the same building. Many of these concepts were ignored or changed by other presidents with different visions in later years. Brasília was designed, constructed, and inaugurated within four years. After its completion, Niemeyer was named chief of the college of architecture of the
University of Brasília. In 1963, he became an honorary member of the
American Institute of Architects in the United States; the same year, he received the
Lenin Peace Prize from the
USSR. Niemeyer and his contribution to the construction of
Brasília are portrayed in the 1964 French film ''
L'homme de Rio (The Man from Rio''), starring
Jean-Paul Belmondo. In 1964, at 57, after being invited by
Abba Hushi, the mayor of
Haifa, Israel, to plan the campus of the
University of Haifa on
Mount Carmel, he came back to a completely different Brazil. In March President
João Goulart, who succeeded President
Jânio Quadros in 1961, was deposed in a military coup. General
Castelo Branco assumed command of the country, which would remain a dictatorship until 1985. In 1987, Brasília was inscribed as a UNESCO
World Heritage Site. Niemeyer is the first person to have received such recognition for one of his works during his lifetime. File:Brasilia aerea eixo monumental.jpg|
Monumental Axis File:Brasilia Congresso Nacional 05 2007 221.jpg|
National Congress of Brazil File:Webysther 20180212155930 - Catedral Metropolitana Nossa Senhora Aparecida.jpg|
Cathedral of Brasília File:Planalto panorama.jpg|
Palácio do Planalto File:Itamaraty (47946683752).jpg|
Itamaraty Palace Exile and projects overseas Niemeyer's politics cost him during the military dictatorship. His office was pillaged, the headquarters of the magazine he coordinated were destroyed and clients disappeared. In 1965, two hundred professors, Niemeyer among them, resigned from the
University of Brasília, to protest against the government's treatment of universities. In the same year he traveled to France for an exhibition in the
Louvre. International Fair in
Tripoli, Lebanon was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 2023 The following year, Niemeyer moved to Paris. In 1962 he visited
Tripoli, Lebanon to design the International Permanent Exhibition Centre. Despite completing construction, the start of the civil war in 1975 in Lebanon disrupted its launch. He opened an office on the
Champs-Élysées and found customers in diverse countries, especially in
Algeria where he designed the
University of Science and Technology-Houari Boumediene. In Paris he created the
Headquarters of the French Communist Party, While in Paris, Niemeyer began designing furniture that was produced by Mobilier International. He created an easy chair and
ottoman composed of bent steel and leather in limited numbers for private clients. Later, in 1978, this chair and other designs, including the "Rio" chaise-longue were produced in Brazil by Tendo company, then Tendo Brasileira. The easy chairs and ottomans were made of bent wood and were placed in Communist party headquarters around the world. Much like his architecture, Niemeyer's furniture designs evoked the beauty of Brazil, with curves mimicking the female form and the hills of
Rio de Janeiro.
Later life and death The Brazilian dictatorship lasted until 1985. Under
João Figueiredo's rule it softened and gradually turned towards democracy. At this time Niemeyer returned to his country. During the 1980s, he made the
Memorial Juscelino Kubitschek (1980), the
Pantheon (
Panteão da Pátria e da Liberdade Tancredo Neves, 1985) and the
Latin America Memorial (1987) (described by
The Independent of London to be "an incoherent and vulgar construction"). The memorial sculpture represents a wounded hand, whose wound bleeds in the shape of
Central and South America. In 1988, at 81, Niemeyer was awarded the
Pritzker Architecture Prize, architecture's most prestigious award. From 1992 to 1996, Niemeyer was the president of the
Brazilian Communist Party (PCB). As a lifelong activist, Niemeyer was a powerful public figure who could be linked to the party at a time when it appeared to be in its death throes after the USSR's demise. Although not politically active, his image helped the party survive its crisis, after the
1992 split and to remain as a political force on the national scene, which eventually led to its renewal. He was replaced by Zuleide Faria de Mello in 1996. He designed at least two more buildings in Brasília, the Memorial dos Povos Indigenas ("Memorial for the Indigenous People") and the Catedral Militar, Igreja de N.S. da Paz. In 1996, at the age of 89, he was responsible for the design of the
Niterói Contemporary Art Museum in
Niterói, a city next to Rio de Janeiro. The building cantilevers out from a sheer rock face, offering a view of
Guanabara Bay and the city of Rio de Janeiro. Niemeyer maintained his studio in Rio de Janeiro into the 21st century. In 2002, the
Oscar Niemeyer Museum complex was inaugurated in the city of
Curitiba, Paraná. In 2003, at 96, Niemeyer was called to design the
Serpentine Gallery Summer Pavilion in
Hyde Park, London, a gallery that each year invites a famous architect, who has never previously built in the UK, to design this temporary structure. He was still involved in diverse projects at the age of 100, mainly sculptures and adjustments of previous works. On Niemeyer's 100th birthday, Russia's president
Vladimir Putin awarded him the
Order of Friendship. Grateful for the
Prince of Asturias Award of Arts received in 1989, he collaborated on the 25th anniversary of the award with the donation to
Asturias of the design of a cultural centre. The
Oscar Niemeyer International Cultural Centre (also known in Spain as Centro Niemeyer), is located in
Avilés and was inaugurated in 2011. In January 2010, the Auditorium Oscar Niemeyer Ravello was officially opened in
Ravello, Italy, on the
Amalfi Coast. The Auditorium's concept design, drawings, model, sketches and text were made by Niemeyer in 2000 and completed under the guidance of his friend, Italian sociologist
Domenico de Masi. The project was delayed for several years due to objections arising from its design, siting, and clear difference from the local architecture; since its inauguration the project has experienced problems and was closed for a year. Starting in 2002, Niemeyer and
lighting designer Peter Gasper reformulated the lighting of several of Brasília's most iconic buildings. The projects for buildings in Brasília often featured
lighting design by Peter Gasper, with whom Niemeyer had a working relationship. After reaching 100, Niemeyer was regularly hospitalized. In 2009, after a four-week hospitalization for the
treatment of gallstones and an
intestinal tumour, he was quoted as saying that hospitalization is a "very lonely thing; I needed to keep busy, keep in touch with friends, maintain my rhythm of life." In 2011, Niemeyer was commissioned to complete what would be his final design - the Oscar Niemeyer Sphere - to house part of a canteen in an industrial estate in
Leipzig. His daughter and only child,
Anna Maria, died of
emphysema in June 2012, aged 82. He had been hospitalised with a respiratory infection prior to his death. The
BBC's obituary of Niemeyer stated that he "built some of the world's most striking buildings – monumental, curving concrete and glass structures which almost defy description", describing him as "one of the most innovative and daring architects of the last 60 years".
The Washington Post said he was "widely regarded as the foremost Latin American architect of the last century". File:Olho Neimayer Curitiba 03 2007.jpg|
Oscar Niemeyer Museum,
Curitiba, Brazil File:CentroNiemeyer72.jpg|
Oscar Niemeyer International Cultural Centre, Asturias, Spain File:Mondadori headquarters by Oscar Niemeyer, Segrate (Milano) 07.jpg|
Mondadori Palace Milan, Italy File:PCF HQ 41.JPG|
Headquarters of the French Communist Party,
Paris, France File:A imensa obra de Oscar Niemeyer. Niterói - Brasil. (9233642240).jpg|
Niterói Contemporary Art Museum, Brazil == Personal life ==