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Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho, known as Oscar Niemeyer, was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was best known for his design of civic buildings for Brasília, a planned city that became Brazil's capital in 1960, as well as his collaboration with other architects on the headquarters of the United Nations…
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politics · Brazilian architect (1907–2012) · architect · designer · university teacher · writer · politician · urban planner · also Oscar Niemeyer, Oscar Niemeyer Soares, Ribeiro de Almeida Soares, Oscar Niemeyer Soares Filho, Oscard Niemeyer, Filho, Oscar Niemeyer Soares
Born 15 December 1907 · Died 5 December 2012 · Q134165
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s curves His bold futuristic designs in Brasilia made the new capital a dramatic statement of confidence in the future of Brazil, and an icon of modern architecture. A student of Le Corbusier, he developed a distinctive style defined by stark concrete and sweeping curves. He famously once said the stylised swoops in his buildings were inspired by the curves of Brazilian women.
I have plenty of new work. The president of Angola has invited me to design a new capital city for his country, four times the size of Brasilia.
85%The Guardian
“s curves His bold futuristic designs in Brasilia made the new capital a dramatic statement of confidence in the future of Brazil, and an icon of modern architecture. A student of Le Corbusier, he developed a distinctive style defined by stark concrete and sweeping curves. He famously once said the stylised swoops in his buildings were inspired by the curves of Brazilian women.”
“I have plenty of new work. The president of Angola has invited me to design a new capital city for his country, four times the size of Brasilia.”
“Our concern is political too – to change the world ... Architecture is my work, and I”
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“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”
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Dwell: Photo 3 of 4 in Favorites by junkyongs@sbcglobal.net from Design Icon: 10 Buildings by Oscar Niemeyer
ArchDaily: Galería de Celebrando a Oscar Niemeyer y sus obras maestras a través del lente fotográfico - 4
ArchDaily: Galería de Lo mejor de Flickr en Plataforma Arquitectura - Especial Oscar Niemeyer - 6
ArchDaily: Galería de Clásicos de Arquitectura: Pabellón Brasilero de 1939 en Nueva York / Lucio Costa & Oscar Niemeyer - 1
Billboard Argentina: Luiz Oscar Niemeyer es elegido Ejecutivo del Año en la 1ª edición del Power Players de Billboard Brasil
ArchDaily: Galería de Tras el legado de Oscar Niemeyer: la historia detrás del Teatro Estatal de Araras en Brasil - 4
Billboard: Billboard Brasil Unveils First-Ever Power Players List, Luiz Oscar Niemeyer Named Executive of the Year
ArchDaily: Galería de El Edificio Copan de Oscar Niemeyer tendrá una restauración de fachadas - 2
ArchDaily: Galería de Oscar Niemeyer: Poetica de la forma - 3
ArchDaily: Galería de Sambódromo de Río de Janeiro - Pasarela Profesor Darcy Ribeiro / Oscar Niemeyer - 3
ArchDaily: Galería de Clásicos de la Arquitectura: Congreso Nacional / Oscar Niemeyer - 10
ArchDaily: Galería de En perspectiva: Oscar Niemeyer - 5
ArchDaily: Galería de Clásicos de Arquitectura: Sede del Partido Comunista Francés / Oscar Niemeyer - 33
ArchDaily: Galería de Château La Coste inaugura pabellón póstumo diseñado por Oscar Niemeyer - 1
ArchDaily: Galería de Oscar Niemeyer detrás del lente de Haruo Mikami - 3
ArchDaily: Galería de Conoce las obras brasileñas seleccionadas para el 3º Premio Oscar Niemeyer - 3
ArchDaily: Galería de Centro Deportivo y Cultural Oscar Niemeyer / LA SODA - 3
ArchDaily: Galería de Clásicos de Arquitectura: Edificio Copan / Oscar Niemeyer - 10
ArchDaily: Galería de Converse lanza nueva colección Oscar Niemeyer - 1
ArchDaily: Gallery of AD Classics: The Architecture of Ibirapuera Park / Oscar Niemeyer - 10
ArchDaily: Galería de El Palacio de Itamaraty de Oscar Niemeyer, retratado por Paul Clemence - 20
ArchDaily: El 'proyecto favorito en Europa' de Oscar Niemeyer capturado en las espectaculares fotografías de Karina Castro
ArchDaily: Galería de Serie de dibujos explora la plasticidad de las obras de Oscar Niemeyer - 7
ArchDaily: Galería de Tercera Edición del Premio Oscar Niemeyer para la Arquitectura Latinoamericana - 1
Soon after Niemeyer's death, the Brazilian street artist Eduardo Kobra and four other painters paid their tribute to the architect with a gigantic mural, covering the entire side of a skyscraper at Paulista Avenue in São
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Died 2012-12-05.
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“Eu não dou a menor importância a dinheiro. Nem à própria vida. A vida é um sopro, um minuto. A gente, nasce, morre. O ser humano é um ser completamente abandonado...”
“My ambition has always been to reduce a building’s support to a minimum. The more we diminish supporting structures, the more audacious and important the architecture is. That has been my life’s work.”
“Meu trabalho não tem importância, nem a arquitetura tem importância pra mim. Para mim o importante é a vida, a gente se abraçar, conhecer as pessoas, haver solidariedade, pensar num mundo melhor, o resto é conversa fiada.”
“I had some good opportunities. I was lucky to have had the chance to do things differently. Architecture is about surprise.”
“Meu trabalho não tem importância, nem a arquitetura tem importância pra mim. Para mim o importante é a vida.”
“Cem anos é uma bobagem, depois dos 70 a gente começa a se despedir dos amigos. O que vale é a vida inteira, cada minuto também, e acho que passei bem por ela.”
“It is not the right angle that attracts me. nor the straight line, tough, inflexible, created by man. what attracts me is the free, sensual curve. the curve I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuous course of its rivers, in the waves of the sea, in the clouds of the sky, in the body of the favourite woman. Of curves is made all the universe.”
“Variant translations: It is not the right angle that attracts me,Nor the hard, inflexible straight line, man-made.What attracts me are free and sensual curves.The curves in my country’s mountains,In the sinuous flow of its rivers,In the beloved woman’s body.”
“O mais importante não é a arquitetura, mas a vida, os amigos e este mundo injusto que devemos modificar.”
“It is not the right angle that attracts me, nor the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. What attracts me is the free and sensual curve — the curve that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuous course of its rivers, in the body of the beloved woman.”
Artist Sarah Morris filmed Niemeyer in his office for her 2012 film Rio
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“My work is not about "form follows function," but "form follows beauty" or, even better, "form follows feminine.”
“I have always accepted and respected all other schools of architecture, from the chill and elemental structures of Mies van der Rohe to the imagination and delirium of Gaudi. I must design what pleases me in a way that is naturally linked to my roots and the country of my origin.”
“Enquanto houver miséria e opressão, ser comunista é a nossa decisão”
“Humanity needs dreams to endure misery, even if just for an instant.A humanidade precisa de sonhos para suportar a miséria, nem que seja por um instante.”
“It's funny, the power of beauty, to make us forget such injustice. É estranho o poder da beleza, que nos faz esquecer tanta injustiça.”
“Architecture was my way of expressing my ideals: to be simple, to create a world equal to everyone, to look at people with optimism, that everyone has a gift. I don’t want anything but general happiness. Why is that bad?”
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
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Berry Bergdoll, a curator at MoMA asserted the importance of the exhibition as fusing strands of the geometric and organic soon after WWII
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The Brasília Jubilee Commission chose Benoit's works for an exhibition that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the city
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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, maintai
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Awarded Commander of the Legion of Honour (2007).
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Awarded Order of Cultural Merit (Brazil) (2007).
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Shortly before his 99th birthday, Niemeyer married for the second time, to his longtime secretary Vera Lucia Cabreira at his apartment, a month after he had fractured his hip in a fall
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Benoit presented in Paris a series of paintings entitled Three Traces of Oscar Archived May 2, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, paying tribute to the legacy of Niemeyer in France
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Awarded Praemium Imperiale (2004).
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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 st
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The Unidos de Vila Isabel Samba School celebrated the life of Niemeyer in their carnival parade
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Niemeyer and lighting designer Peter Gasper reformulated the lighting of several of Brasília's most iconic buildings
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The Oscar Niemeyer Museum complex was inaugurated in the city of Curitiba, Paraná
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And completed under the guidance of his friend, Italian sociologist Domenico de Masi
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Won Royal Gold Medal (1998).
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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
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Awarded Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts (1989).
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Collaborated on the 25th anniversary of the award with the donation to Asturias of the design of a cultural centre
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Awarded Pritzker Architecture Prize (1988).
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At 81, Niemeyer was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize, architecture's most prestigious award
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Brasília was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site
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And was awarded the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1988
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This chair and other designs, including the "Rio" chaise-longue were produced in Brazil by Tendo company, then Tendo Brasileira
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Two hundred professors, Niemeyer among them, resigned from the University of Brasília, to protest against the government's treatment of universities
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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
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Awarded Lenin Peace Prize (1963).
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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
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Visited Tripoli, Lebanon to design the International Permanent Exhibition Centre
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As well as his collaboration with other architects on the headquarters of the United Nations in New York
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Niemeyer was invited by Brazil's new president, Juscelino Kubitschek, to design the civic buildings for Brazil's new capital, Brasília
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By Oscar Niemeyer: Works in Progress, by the same author
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At 48, Niemeyer designed the Museum of Modern Art in Caracas
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Niemeyer also designed the "Niemeyer apartment building" at the Praça da Liberdade, Belo Horizonte
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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
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As part of the same plaza Niemeyer built a library the (Biblioteca Pública Estadual)
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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
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Modern Brazilian architecture, which had been praised since Brazil Builds, became the target of international criticism, mainly from rationalists
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The first book about his work to be published in the United States, The Work of Oscar Niemeyer by Stamo Papadaki, was released
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Was asked to design São Paulo's Ibirapuera Park for the city's 400th anniversary celebration
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Niemeyer departed from the parabolic arches he had designed in Pampulha to further explore his signature material, concrete
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Niemeyer returned to New York City to integrate the international team working on the design for the United Nations headquarters
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When he was invited to teach at Yale University, when his political views cost him a visa
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Many communist militants who were arrested under the Vargas' dictatorship were released, and Niemeyer sheltered some of them at his office
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And received international acclaim following the 1943 'Brazil Builds' exhibition, at the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
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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
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At 33, Niemeyer met Juscelino Kubitschek, who was at the time the mayor of Belo Horizonte, capital of the state of Minas Gerais
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Awarded honorary citizen of New York (1939).
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At age 32, Niemeyer and Costa designed the Brazilian pavilion for the New York World's Fair (executed in collaboration with Paul Lester Wiener)
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Niemeyer was invited by a relative to design a nursery for philanthropic institution which catered for young mothers, the Obra do Berço
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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
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(she predeceased her father on June 6, 2012)
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At age 21, Niemeyer left school (Santo Antonio Maria Zaccaria priory school) and married Annita Baldo, daughter of Italian immigrants from Padua
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Born 1907-12-15.
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