Oscar Niemeyer was born in Rio de Janeiro on December 15, 1907. This event occurred on the street, which was named after some time after his grandfather Ribeiro di Almeida. This man was the Minister of the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court.
Youth of the architect
As Oscar recalled, in his youth he led a bohemian life. The future architect Oscar Niemeyer married, barely graduating from school. At first he worked in a printing house, and then, in 1930, he began his studies at the National School of Fine Arts, located in Rio de Janeiro. Oscar chose the faculty of architecture. After 4 years, Niemeyer completed his studies. He went to work in the design workshop of Lucio Costa, a former teacher. Lucio is the founder of Brazilian Art Nouveau architecture.
Collaboration with Charles de Corbusier
At first, Oscar worked for free. In the workshop, he met one man who greatly influenced his work. It's about Charles le Corbusier, a French architect. He was a consultant to young craftsmen working on a project for the building of the Ministry of Health and Education in Rio de Janeiro. This person immediately noted Oscar's talent. He entrusted him with project management.
Niemeyer, thanks to this work, received the glory of an architect who is not afraid of experiments. He managed to masterfully combine very unexpected forms and lines with the functional purpose of the parts and the material from which they are made. Subsequently, these features will become a trademark of the creations of Niemeyer, which will appear in almost every of the 600 projects that he completed in different countries.
Brazil Pavilion and Pampulha Complex
The name of the architect in 1939 became known outside the country. Niemeyer, together with Lucio Costa, designed the Brazilian pavilion, presented in New York at the World Exhibition. In the early 1940s, the architect received a new large order. Juscelin Kubitschek, who later became the president of the country, and at that time being the prefect of the large city of Belo Horizonte (Brazil), instructed him to build a complex of structures on the shore of Lake. Pampoulia There was supposed to be a yacht club and a tennis club, a church, a dance hall, a museum. After the completion of the project, Pampulha became almost the main attraction of the country. It was immediately called the Brazilian architectural gem.
United Nations Building Complex Project
Oscar Niemeyer has become a real celebrity. In 1947, he was a member of a group of architects working on a UN complex of buildings in New York. Niemeyer was the youngest among them. The group was led by American architect Wallace Harrison. The authors sought to ensure that their work has a symbolic, philosophical meaning. Niemeyer developed the concept of "Workshop of the world." Colleagues liked it, the project was approved, but for a number of reasons it was not possible to implement it.
Cottage Kanoas
The experimental architect had many ideas. In particular, one more of his unusual creations became famous throughout the world - the Kanoas dacha. He built it in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro in 1953. Today, this suburb is a prestigious area of San Conrad. According to experts, the solutions used in the construction of this villa are still fresh, although more than 50 years have passed. The house is literally built into its environment. Take, for example, a huge boulder, which during construction was left where it lay, possibly for millennia. The architect decided to erect a wall of the house directly above him. As a result, it turned out that part of the huge stone is outside the house, and the other part is inside. This gives the strict interior of the building a fantastic originality.
However, this work was only an overture to the life of the great architect, who became the city of Brasilia, the new capital of the state.
Brazilian Capital Design
Back in the 19th century, the idea came to transfer the Brazilian capital, which was at that time Rio de Janeiro. Then this idea was argued by the fact that Rio, located on the shores of the Atlantic, in case of attack is at greater risk than a city located in the interior of the country. Nevertheless, it is believed that the main reason for the transfer of the Brazilian capital is the need to develop the center of the country, sparsely populated at that time.
In 1957, this responsible and honorable task, Juscelin Kubitschek, now the president of Brazil, instructed to solve Oscar Niemeyer and Lucio Costa. The latter belongs to the general development plan of the city, and Oscar - the projects of the bulk of residential complexes and buildings. According to experts, the work of these architects became the most famous urban experiment of the time. Almost from scratch after 3 years the city grew, which immediately became one of the most impressive settlements on the planet. So far no equal has appeared to him on earth. The official opening date is April 21, 1960.
The main buildings of the Brazilian capital
At first, the city was designed to accommodate 800 thousand inhabitants, but now there are more than 2.1 million of them. According to the Brazilians, their capital in shape resembles an airplane. If you go up to the television tower located in the city center, you will see a “flying airliner”, which consists of previously unseen streets, squares, parks and buildings. In the center is the triangular square of the Three Powers. In its corners are 3 buildings: the Presidential Palace, the Supreme Court and the National Congress. This is the "cockpit." His “wings” are residential quarters, which are called “south” and “north” wing. The rest of the capital also has a clear division into sectors - the business sector, the hotel, ambassadorial, and entertainment areas.
Every building that Oscar Niemeyer designed is stunning. These sights amaze us with unexpected shapes, daring lines, unusual contours. For example, at the foot of the twin towers of the National Congress, each of which has 28 floors, there is an extensive platform. There are 2 huge bowls on it - the buildings of the House of Representatives and the Senate (pictured above). The first of these bowls is upside down and represents a wide dome, and the second expands to the sky.
The national theater, made in the form of a pyramid, also amazes us with its originality. The main part of this building is located underground. The cathedral with its huge glass cone is also noteworthy. This building (pictured below) is surrounded by white columns, sharpened like pencils. They rest on the ground, then, repeating the shape of the church, with their arrows go to heaven.
The cathedral building is more like an alien ship that landed inadvertently than a temple in its traditional sense. And not far from it there is another miracle of architecture - the building of the Itamarati Palace, which is popularly called the Palace of Arches. It belongs to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This building is also framed by columns that form a gallery with high concrete arches and wide openings. A very unexpected detail for such a serious institution is the large pond that surrounds Itamarati Palace from all sides. It fun frolic fish.
We described only the main buildings that Oscar Niemeyer created in the Brazilian capital. His projects are diverse and numerous. In total, the contrast of the pyramids and domes, rounded bowls and arrow-shaped columns, parks and squares, strict geometric shapes, logic and space in the layout of the streets gives the city expressiveness and brightness. All the more unexpected is the place of work of the Brazilian president - the Palace of Planalto (pictured below).
Its author is also Oscar Niemeyer. The architecture of this building is very remarkable. This small building on four floors does not look like a palace at all. Only the guard indicates that it is here that political decisions are made that affect the fate of the largest state in Latin America.
Many public buildings were designed by Niemeyer Oscar. The government, for example, received its Palace in 1960. However, despite such high services to the state, the architect still had to leave his native country. Let's talk about how this happened.
Niemeyer's life in exile
In 1945, Oscar joined the Communist Party of Brazil and remained faithful to its ideals until his death. The architect designed new cities, but suffered from the fact that he could not eliminate shacks and slums. Niemeyer never hid his beliefs. Because of them, he could not stay in Brazil after a military coup took place in 1960. Oscar had to emigrate to Europe. He is a donkey in Paris. The architect called this forced departure "unauthorized expulsion." Niemeyer then traveled the world, visited, among other countries, the Soviet Union, where he found many admirers and like-minded people. He became a fighter for social progress and peace on earth. For this, he was awarded the prize "For the strengthening of peace between peoples" (International Lenin Prize).
As before, the architect worked diligently. It seems that the geography of his work is truly limitless: Italy, Germany, France, Lebanon, Congo, Ghana, the USA, Algeria and many other states. His most famous projects of this period were the Central Committee of the French Communist Party, located in Paris, as well as the Mondadori in Milan.
Return to Brazil, J. Kubitschek Memorial
Only in the early 1980s did Oscar Niemeyer return to Brazil. He immediately began to realize his dream - a memorial project dedicated to the memory of the "father" of the Brazilian capital, Juscelin Kubitschek. The memorial, the shape of which reminds us of a sickle and a hammer, is surrounded by greenery. It is located near the TV tower. This is one of the main attractions of the Brazilian capital.
The last years of life, the death of an architect
In the last years of his life, Oscar Niemeyer worked in his studio, located in Rio de Janeiro, on the promenade of Copacabana. Among his recent works is the reconstruction of the Sambadrom. Back in 1984, this avenue with stands was built. During the carnival, samba school competitions are held here. Only by 2012 this prospectus was brought in accordance with the Niemeyer project.
The outstanding Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer died on December 6, 2012 in a hospital in the city of Rio de Janeiro, where he underwent treatment for a month. Oscar did not live to the 105th birthday of only 10 days. His only daughter, Anna Maria Niemeyer, died at the age of 82 in June 2012.
Oscar Niemeyer Cultural Center
This object is located in Spanish Aviles and is a gigantic museum and exhibition complex. In the concert and exhibition halls of the center, various cultural events are held - exhibitions of photographers and artists, dance performances and theater performances, concerts and film screenings, educational lectures and seminars.
This object is interesting from the point of view of architecture. It looks more like a playground than a museum complex. The center consists of five buildings, each of which is distinguished by the bright color of the facades and the whimsical form. The cultural center, located in Aviles, is the only colored building in the works of Oscar Niemeyer. This decision was not chosen by chance - the construction was to become a kind of depression remedy for the population of a small industrial town. Aviles was treated for a long time as the ugly duckling of northern Spain. It was usually associated among the inhabitants of the country with smoking chimneys of the steel mills located here. Together with this exhibition complex, Oscar gave the city a new life. Construction work began in 2008 and completed in 2011. The five parts of the center are a movie center, an observation tower, an auditorium and a central square.
