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 Oscar
Niemeyer:
Arquitecto de las curvas y de los grandes palacios
Oscar Niemeyer, de 95 años, hizo el proyecto de
Brasilia por un salario mínimo, decidió firmar algunos trabajos con el
nombre completo, para homenajear a su abuelo, y se dedica una vez a la
semana al estudio del cosmos. "Las ideas
marxistas continúan perfectas, los hombres deberían ser más fraternos",
dice el arquitecto Oscar Niemeyer, que trabaja todos los días en su
oficina de Copacabana.
Oscar Niemeyer es conocido ante todo como
arquitecto de Brasilia, capital del Brasil, que fue erigida a partir de
la nada en los años 60. pero muchos otros proyectos lo han hecho
célebre. Es el hombre que diseñó iglesias, pero que no obtuvo visa para
los Estados Unidos; el hombre que construyó grandes monumentos para los
obreros huelguistas, para los campesinos sin tierra. Es el arquitecto de
la sede del Partido Comunista Francés en París etc.
Oscar Niemeyer no esconde sus opiniones:
"No me callaré nunca. No esconderé nunca mis convicciones comunistas. Y
quien me contacta como arquitecto conoce mis concepciones ideológicas.
Durante mis conferencias, siempre he subrayado que la arquitectura no es
lo esencial. Comparen la arquitectura con la vida, el ser humano, la
lucha política, la contribución que hacemos todos a la sociedad para
nuestros hermanos desheredados. ¿Qué representa la arquitectura con
relación a la lucha por un mundo mejor, sin clases?".
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares.
Es así como el arquitecto Oscar Niemeyer ha firmado algunos de sus
últimos trabajos. Utilizar el nombre completo fue la forma que encontró
para homenajear a su abuelo, el ministro del Tribunal Supremo Federal
Antonio Augusto Ribeiro de Almeida, con quien vivió en la infancia y
tuvo, según cuenta, los primeros ejemplos de solidaridad y justicia.
"Mi abuelo fue un hombre útil y murió pobre", recuerda. "¡Qué
orgullo! Hay tantos robando dinero público hoy". Inspirado en el
ejemplo del abuelo entró a militar en el Partido Comunista Brasileño (PCB).
El presidente Kubischek le encargó el
diseño de la nueva capital Brasilia. Con un salario de 40 mil cruceiros,
absolutamente ridículo para la monumental tarea, Niemeyer exigió que el
gobierno contratara a un puñado de amigos que, a primera vista, nada
tenían que ver con la obra. Había un arquero del Flamengo y cuatro
compañeros más "que estaban en la mierda y yo quería ayudar",
confiesa.
A los 95 años, el arquitecto de Brasilia
y de la sede de la Organización de Naciones Unidas (ONU), en Nueva York,
considera que su mayor logro fue haber ingresado al PCB. Y con esa
convicción, en 1945, donó su taller en la calle Conde Lages, en el
centro de Río de Janeiro para la primera sede del comité metropolitano
del partido. Años más tarde, también regalaría un apartamento a su
amigo, el dirigente comunista Luis Carlos Prestes. "Las ideas
marxistas siguen perfectas, los hombres deberían ser más fraternos",
analiza.
En la arquitectura encontró la solución
para no rebelarse al punto de participar en la lucha armada. "La
solución natural es la curva, presente en todo, en el razonamiento, en
el universo, en la democracia y en la vida", filosofa Niemeyer.
Como lo expresó el escritor comunista
brasileño Jorge Amado: "Mientras algunos sólo se ocupan de la
fabricación de armas que siembran la muerte y la destrucción, los
arquitectos construyen casas, fábricas, hospitales, escuelas,
universidades... Son la antítesis de la destrucción, de la pobreza y de
la incomodidad. Oscar Niemeyer es el mejor símbolo de una arquitectura
que es conciente de su papel social, su verdadera función".
"Fui llevado a la policía varias
veces. El interrogatorio de siempre: Cuba, Fidel, artículos publicados
en la Unión Soviética. Un día trabajábamos en los proyectos de los
ministerios y, para facilitar los contactos, un oficial, antiguo
conocido nuestro, nos servía de interlocutor. Un día me dijo: 'Fui
llamado a Río. Usted va a ser apresado mañana. Dicen que dio dinero a un
subversivo que anda escondido en Brasilia'. Al día siguiente, por
precaución, fui con mi colega Italo Campofiorito a verificar si en la
oficina había alguna cosa comprometedora. Y reímos sorprendidos: el
primer libro que encontré era de poemas de mi camarada Marighella, con
una dedicatoria muy fraternal para mí. No fui preso, dicen que así lo
decidió el ministro".
En 1964, en un cuarto de hotel de Lisboa,
se entera por la radio de que la dictadura militar había sido instaurada
en Brasil. Su oficina en Río fue invadida y saqueada. Sus proyectos,
tales como el aeropuerto de Brasilia, comenzaron a ser rechazados. Un
decreto especial de De Gaulle le dio derecho a trabajar como arquitecto
en Francia. En 1967, diseñó la sede del Partido Comunista Francés.
Niemeyer sólo volvió a vivir definitivamente en Brasil a comienzos de
los años 80, con la apertura política.
Con muchos proyectos, llega todos los
días a su oficina, con vista hacia el mar de Copacabana, a las 9 de la
mañana, y sólo vuelve a casa después de las 9 de la noche. "Me gusta
sentirme útil", explica. Uno de sus últimos trabajos fue encargado
por Fidel Castro: un monumento contra el bloqueo económico a Cuba.
En el portarretratos sobre la mesa, se ve
al líder comunista Luis Carlos Prestes, en un local indefinido (un acto
de protesta, se presume) y fecha incierta (el rostro es joven y altivo).
"Prestes fue un gran líder, un gran brasileño. Una figura excepcional
que dedicó toda su vida a nuestro pueblo".
"Estuve con él en París cuando volvió
de la Unión Soviética y el vínculo con el partido ya era difícil.
Después, mantuvimos el mismo contacto y la misma amistad hasta el último
día. Fue una historia de lucha política llena de problemas, pero siempre
vivida con mucho respeto. La memoria de Prestes fue siempre cultivada y
engrandecida por quienes se ocuparon de ella. Desgraciadamente no
ocurrió lo mismo con Stalin, a quien privaron de todo en sus últimos
días. Basta interesarse por el asunto para sentir cómo fue de odiosa la
campaña organizada contra él. Meses atrás, recibí la visita de un amigo
ruso, comunista, descontento con lo que pasa en su país, pero que confía
en que todo volverá al pasado, con el pueblo protegido y feliz, más
pronto de lo que se piensa. Durante su conversación tan auténtica, quise
saber lo que piensa hoy el pueblo ruso sobre Stalin. Y fue categórico:
'Estamos de acuerdo con todo lo que él dijo e hizo'. Y tenía razón.
Quien se interese por la vida de ese gran líder soviético se va a
sorprender con el ejemplo de determinación y coraje que representa.
Desde los 14 años, Stalin estaba en el partido, cuando fue preso y
enviado a Siberia. Después fue aquella actuación política decisiva,
enviando armas para Mao Tse-Tung en China, para los republicanos durante
la Guerra Civil Española, apoyando a todos los partidos comunistas del
mundo. Y esto sin hablar de su victoria contra el nazismo, héroe de
Stalingrado, figura extraordinaria para siempre grabada en el corazón
del pueblo soviético. Todo esto explica su determinación contra quienes
querían cambiar el sentido de la Revolución de Octubre, por la cual
lucharon y murieron miles de camaradas. De lejos es muy fácil criticar.
Ya escuché a un sujeto hablando mal de Mao Tse-Tung y de Fidel. Fidel,
un sujeto fantástico que unió a América Latina, un sujeto que liberó a
Cuba de la presión norteamericana. La revolución cubana fue fantástica.
De modo que la gente tiene que respetar a esas personas".
- ¿Pero entonces por qué fracasó el
modelo? ¿Por qué cayó el comunismo?
-"El comunismo no cayó. El capitalismo
sí va a desaparecer y por esto mismo se muestra cada vez más violento y
contradictorio, desafiando principios ya establecidos como el de la
autodeterminación de los pueblos, antes tan respetado. Quien conoce el
patriotismo del pueblo soviético, quien lee los grandes clásicos donde
éste está siempre presente, no puede dudar de que pronto todo estará de
vuelta otra vez. No un comunismo diferente, como algunos sugieren, sino
el comunismo que los más pobres conocieron y que les garantizó un apoyo
y una solidaridad que desaparecieron. El mundo va a cambiar, mi amigo.
La miseria es demasiado grande para no ser atendida".
- ¿Dónde comenzó el fin?
- "El fin del capitalismo comenzó hace
mucho tiempo".
- ¿Cuál es su idea de Gorbachov?
- "Es una mierda, sobran los
comentarios".
- ¿Cómo ve usted la situación actual
de la izquierda? ¿Cómo cree que esto va a evolucionar en los próximos
años? ¿Acabó el comunismo? ¿Acabó el socialismo? ¿Venció el pensamiento
único, o esto es una cosa que va más...?
- "Lo importante es que tengamos
siempre la idea de un mundo mejor dentro de nuestros corazones. La vida
es la que nos va a guiar, concientes de que todo tiene un límite. Si la
miseria se multiplica y la oscuridad nos envuelve, ahí vale la pena
encender una luz y arriesgar. Fue lo que Fidel hizo con la Revolución
Cubana, convirtiéndose en el gran líder de América Latina".
- ¿Ve hipótesis de guerra?
- "Por todas partes. Hasta en la
Amazonia puede ocurrir si la invadieran, como se dio en el Vietnam".
Hay consignas rayadas en las paredes del
enorme salón de Niemeyer: "Cuando la vida se degrada y la esperanza
huye del corazón de los hombres, la revolución es el camino a seguir",
por ejemplo. No es necesario ser perito de alguna policía secreta para
adivinar al autor del crimen. El trazo irregular, como si fuese puntuado
de minúsculas e infinitas curvas, lo denuncia.
 Biography:
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Niemeyer was born
in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on the 15th December 1907. He graduated from
the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro in 1934.
At this time he joined
a team of Brazilian architects collaborating with Le Corbusier on a new
Ministry of Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro. He worked with Lucio
Costa and Le Corbusier till 1938 on this project.
(Niemeyer: Caricatura / Cartoon de Luis Carlos
Fernandes, a la derecha)
While working on this
project he met the mayor of Brazil's wealthiest central state, Juscelino
Kubitschek, who would later become President of Brazil. As President, he
appointed Niemeyer to be the chief architect of Brasilia, a project
which occupied all of his time for many years.
Only one year later,
1939, he and Costa designed the Brazilian pavilion at the New York World
Fair. The series of buildings Niemeyer created till 1942 were heavily
influenced by the Brazilian baroque style in architecture.
Although associated
primarily with his major masterpiece, Brasilia, the capital city of
Brazil, he had achieved early recognition from one of his mentors, Le
Corbusier, going on to collaborate with him on one of the most important
symbolic structures in the world, the United Nations Headquarters in New
York.
In the 1950's, he
designed an Aeronautical Research Center near Sao Paulo. In Europe, he
did an office building for Renault and in Italy, the Mondadori Editorial
Office in Milan and the FATA Office Building in Turin. In Algiers, he
designed the Zoological Gardens, the University of Constantine, and the
Foreign Office.
From 1957 till 1959
Niemeyer was appointed architectural advisor to Nova Cap- an
organisation charged with implenting Luis Costa´s plans for Brazil´s new
capitol. The following year he become Nova Cap´s chief architect,
designing most of the city´s important buildings. The epoch of Niemeyers
career, these buildings mark a period of creativity on modern symbolism.
Five years later, in
1964, his political affiliation with the communist party forced him into
exile in France. There he constructed the building for the French
communist party. With the end of the dictatorship he returned to Brazil,
teaching at the university of Rio de Janeiro and working in private
practice.
He received the Gold
Medal of the American Institute of Architectur in 1970. Influenced by Le
Corbusier, and using the material and building language of the
International Style he enriched it with the natural, flowing curves of
South American architecture and developed his typical fluid and
sculptural style.
Recognized as one of
the first to pioneer new concepts in architecture in this hemisphere,
his designs are artistic gesture, with underlying logic and substance.
His pursuit of great architecture linked to roots of his native land has
resulted in new plastic forms and a lyricism in buildings, not only in
Brazil, but around the world. For his lifetime achievements, the
Pritzker Architecture Prize is bestowed.
Although semi-retired,
he still works at the drawing board and welcomes young architects from
all over the world. He hopes to instill in them the sensitivity to
aesthetics that allowed him to strive for beauty in the manipulation of
architectural forms.
His own House - ‘53
The house that Niemeyer
built for himself in 1953 is an excellent example of Freeform Modernism,
and an example that could only exist in Brazil. While the thin, flat
roof slab and floor-to-ceiling glass walls are certainly central
elements of many classic Modernist buildings, particularly Mies’s
Farnsworth House and Philip Johnson’s Glass House, the curvilinear
outlines in Niemeyer’s residence are uniquely expressive of Brazilian
heritage. The Colonial Baroque architecture that dominated Brazil before
is very curvaceous, as is its local artwork. Moreover; the eroded hills,
winding rivers and shorelines, and rolling landscape of Brazil itself
are a clear inspiration for the forms in Niemeyer’s work. As the
architect himself states
1943:
Residencia Peixoto
1943:
Itamatary Palace
1959:
Pantheon
1960:
Catedral Metropolitana
1960:
Congreso Nacional
1972:
Le Havre Cultural Centre
1996:
Apartamentos Building (Rio)
1996:
Lady of Fatima
The Creator's
Words
"Architecture must
express the spirit of the technical and social forces that are
predominant in a given epoch; but when such forces are not balances, the
resulting conflict is prejudicial to the content of the work and to the
work as a whole. Only with this in mind may we understand the nature of
the plans and drawings which appear in this volume. I should have very
much liked to be in a position to present a more realistic achievement:
a kind of work which reflects not only refinements and comfort but also
a positive collaboration between the architect and the whole society."
"I have always," says
Niemeyer, "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.
Centenary years are a common excuse
to celebrate an artist’s work. Centenary celebrations honouring
artists who are still alive - and professionally active - are much
rarer.
Brazil’s most famous architect, Oscar
Niemeyer, will turn 100 in December. This has already been a busy
year for him, with commemorative exhibitions opening throughout the
country and homage being paid from all quarters of public life.
After recovering from surgery following a fall late last year, he is
not shying away from public attention.
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Niemeyer’s
prominence rests on his spectacular attempts to tropicalise the
modernist ideals embodied by architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright
and Le Corbusier. His native city’s hilly landscape and female
denizens are said to have inspired a love of meandering lines. As he
wrote in a poem:
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.
In practice, this has produced
stunningly sculptural buildings that reveal a commitment to
plasticity over function.
Niemeyer shot to fame when he and
fellow architect Lucio Costa erected Brazil’s pavilion at New York’s
1939 World Fair. The following year Juscelino Kubitschek, mayor of
the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, asked him to design a building
complex around a reservoir in the suburb of Pampulha. The project
included a church, yacht club, casino and dance hall. It turned out
to be a crucial commission. When Kubitschek became president in 1956
and envisioned a new inland capital for the country - Brasilia - he
asked Costa to plan it and Niemeyer to build it.
The Pampulha complex was fundamental
for another reason: it was the first of Niemeyer’s large-scale
projects to employ reinforced concrete in free, unsupported curves -
a signature of most of his buildings since. At the time, the church
of Sao Francisco de Assis, with its undulating vaulted roof, pushed
the boundaries of engineering and material usage. It remains (after
recent restoration) one of Niemeyer’s most iconic and graceful
works.
Bigger commissions followed, both at
home and abroad. Then came that rarest of opportunities: an
invitation to create from scratch, almost single-handedly, a new
capital. Inaugurated in 1960, Niemeyer’s Brasilia is a bold essay in
the use of volume and space. His National Congress mixes domed and
saucer-shaped structures with a vertical tower block. The foreign
ministry seems to levitate over water. Snaking ramps and tapering
columns give the monumental edifices, including a cathedral and the
presidential palace, an unexpected weightlessness.
Age has not slowed him down. In the
past few months alone, Niemeyer has completed, or unveiled plans
for, projects in Brazil, France, Spain and Cuba. One of his latest -
a monument in Caracas, Venezuela, to honour the nation’s liberator
Simon Bolivar - was commissioned recently by Venezuelan president
Hugo Chavez. ”I’m as busy as anyone else,” Niemeyer tells me when we
finally meet in his Rio de Janeiro studio. ”I like working. To spend
time on a project is no sacrifice.”
Niemeyer keeps himself busy in the
penthouse of a 10-storey art-deco building, once known as ”The Mae
West” due to its voluptuously curved bay windows. The view from
inside the studio is breathtaking: Sugar Loaf Mountain, on the far
left; Copacabana Fort, on the far right; and Copacabana beach
connecting them like a sun-kissed necklace.
I had arranged an interview through
Vera, Niemeyer’s long-time secretary and now (as of November) second
wife. I arrive on time, and an assistant asks me to wait: the
architect is in a meeting. A male nurse sits in one of the two
alcoves overlooking the seafront. Curled up floor plans are piled on
a Niemeyer-designed chaise longue. A sleek rocking chair, also
designed by him, looks tempting, but too beautiful, to sit on.
There is plenty of time to admire the
line drawings scrawled on the waiting area’s walls - sketches of his
most famous buildings and female nudes. I ask the nurse about
Niemeyer’s health. ”Good for someone his age,” he tells me. I notice
a filing cabinet with shallow drawers marked ”Drawings for political
work” and ”Drawings of women”.
Laughter emanates from the
architect’s inner sanctum. Out comes Canadian rock idol Bryan Adams,
who is in town for a concert and has stopped by to pay his respects
to Brazil’s living treasure. I continue to wait as other visitors
with more pressing business rush in to see Niemeyer ahead of me. A
woman explains, apologetically, that she had just arrived from Cuba
with urgent news from Fidel and Raul Castro - Niemeyer recently
designed a statue to be unveiled near Havana’s airport, a gift for
Fidel’s 80th birthday.
More than an hour after the appointed
time, I am ushered into the architect’s small, book-lined office. He
is slumped in his chair, unshaven and looking rather frail. He seems
annoyed by my presence. A cigarette smoulders in an ashtray. ”You’re
late,” he says, ”I’m too busy for interviews.” I remonstrate. He
concedes: ”As long as it doesn’t take you more than 15 minutes.”
Idle conversation is out of the question. ”You are almost 100 years
old,” I begin, stating the obvious. He interrupts, tersely: ”Voce e
uma merda.”
To be called a shit so soon into the
interview does not bode well for the remainder of my 15 minutes.
What I wanted to say, I explain, was that in nearly a century of
life and 70 years of work, he must have achieved things he was proud
of. ”No, I’m a human being like any other. I worked. I lived. I had
fun. I’ll be gone. That’s it. There’s nothing special about me.”
Surely there are works of his that
have caused him some satisfaction? Maybe Pampulha, he replies, since
it became a precedent for the construction of the new capital.
”Brasilia marked a period of optimism in the country,” he says
wistfully. ”To see a city built so dramatically gave Brazilians a
sense of renewed confidence.”
He remains determinedly self-effacing
about his own role. ”I had some good opportunities. I was lucky to
have had the chance to do things differently. Architecture is about
surprise.”
Niemeyer’s ambition to surprise
remains undiminished in his recent work. ”Oscar Niemeyer 10/100”, a
retrospective exhibition on show at Rio de Janeiro’s Paco Imperial,
focuses on 40 projects completed between 1996 and 2006. There are
models and sketches of his spaceship-like contemporary art museum in
Niteroi (1996), of the new auditorium for Sao Paulo’s Ibirapuera
Park (1999), of his summer pavilion at London’s Serpentine Gallery
(2003) and of Brasilia’s national library (2006). The soaring
curves, winding ramps and gargantuan vaults are still there, though
attention to detail is less evident - some critics have observed
that Niemeyer’s latest works are poorly executed variations on
previous efforts.
The exhibition also offers an
overview of his early career, displaying models of highlights such
as his collaboration with Le Corbusier on the United Nations
headquarters in New York (1952), the communist party headquarters in
Paris (1967), the exquisite Mondadori building outside Milan (1968),
and the University of Constantine, in Algeria (1969). Alongside the
strictly architectural work, a few of his sketches of female nudes
are shown in public for the first time.
The common denominator of Niemeyer’s
old and new projects is his consistent exploration of reinforced
concrete’s versatility, his drive to create structures that seem
lighter even as they become larger. ”My ambition has always been to
reduce a building’s support to a minimum,” he reflects. ”The more we
diminish supporting structures, the more audacious and important the
architecture is. That has been my life’s work.” For that work he was
awarded the 1988 Pritzker Prize.
Long a member of the communist party,
Niemeyer is a vocal defender of left-wing governments in Brazil and
abroad. His Bolivar monument, in Caracas, will be shaped like a
lance pointing at the US. In an accompanying text to the Paco
Imperial exhibition, he writes: ”Only in politics I am intransigent
and radical - I am against Bush’s murderous empire, and against
anyone who in this country opposes [president] Lula”.
Can politics and architecture mix?
”Architecture doesn’t matter,” Niemeyer tells me. ”Someone who is
out on the streets protesting is doing a much more important job
than I am. Politics matters. Changing the world matters because we
live in a shit world.” What, I ask, can architecture do to change
the world? Nothing, he replies.
Yet one of his current projects
betrays an entrenched idealism - he has plans for a university
designed to eradicate barriers between intellectual disciplines. ”To
eliminate the specialist man”, he says solemnly, as if this worthy
humanist ideal were not an ancient one.
There is a favourite phrase of
Niemeyer’s. I have heard him say it at interviews, and read it in
his books. Even as my 15 minutes run out, he is not prepared to let
me go without reiterating it for my benefit: ”Life is more important
than architecture.”
”Oscar Niemeyer 10/100: Producao
Contemporanea 1996-2006” is on at Paco Imperial, Praca XV de
Novembro 48, Rio de Janeiro, until April 29.
The Financial Times
Limited 2007
Oscar Niemeyer,
his legacy to American
architecture
The grand vision and
distinguished career of Brazilian Oscar Niemeyer provide continued
inspiration to architectural designers in America and throughout the
world.
The Ecole des Beaux Arts and Bauhaus in
Europe have not been the only source of inspiration for
architectural
design in America. Perhaps the grandest of visions, one that always sets
the architects of America to dreaming, has been that of Oscar Niemeyer,
manifest in his work in Argentina and Brazil.
Niemeyer, in collaboration with Lucio
Costa, was commissioned to design an entire city from scratch, Brasilia,
to be the capital city of Brazil. The project was to be their life work,
and is still not complete. Despite this, the concept remains vibrantly
alive. Many of the lessons Niemeyer and Costa worked through in the
Fifties nearly half a century later are still informing urban structural
design in America.
Niemeyer and Costa made their first mark
in 1937 with the design of the Ministry of Education building in Rio de
Janeiro. Working with architectural icon, Le Corbusier, as project
consultants, they elaborated what became known as "brise soleil", sun
screens on building facades that appreciably enhanced the aesthetic
element yet were fully functional. "Sun, space, verdure" was a Corbusian
axiom even then, and this building integrated the three in a profoundly
successful design.
In later years, Niemeyer again
collaborated with Le Corbusier in the design of the United Nations
Headquarters building in New York City.
The "de novo" city is an architect's
dream; to design an entire city. In the aftermath of the second world
war, opportunities seemed to abound, for entire cities had virtually
been laid waste. Coventry was an example. Unfortunately, architectural
vision can be blurred by public myopia and bureaucratic conservatism,
with the result that the vision is lost to tract houses and banal cubes
of offices. Brasilia was different; and the architectural world watched.
Niemeyer and Costa had seen the
congestion of New York City traffic, streets meant for pedestrians
choked with cars and trucks, and they had seen the labyrinthine chaos of
Los Angeles' freeways. In the early Fifties, owning and driving a car,
the bigger the better, was as culturally valued in North America as
owning one's own home, and as feasible.
Niemeyer and Costa decided that Brasilia
would, foremost, be designed for cars. The Niemeyer/Costa planning in
that regard remains required reading for fledgling traffic engineers
throughout urban America.
In pure design, the
architects
opted for contrasts on a monumental scale; not surprising, considering
the first structures in the phased construction program were government
and other public buildings. Each building unfolded as part of a holistic
design. That housing Congress was two twin towers, variations on Miesian
principles but adjacently balanced by a magnificent lower bowl echoing
Nervi's designs, in which to house Brazil's Chamber of Deputies.
Balance and purity of line – the city
from the air would be an architectural tapestry; from the ground an
accessible, functional and aesthetically awesome monument to purity of
form in a durable human context.
Brasilia was envisioned to incorporate
all that was new in materials and design with the purpose, power and
authority of nationhood, and do so in a living environment for more than
a million people.
Among the first buildings constructed was
the Alvorada Palace. Here, concrete loggia, curved slimly at the top,
broadening strongly at the bottom to support the structure, are
significant features. Adjacent to the Palace, smaller yet not dwarfed,
is a shell-shaped chapel that swoops to a slim cross atop a pinnacle of
concrete; fragility and strength juxtaposed in breathtaking contrast,
yet still integrated one into the other. Structural lines flow smoothly,
without jarring the eye. Niemeyer and Costa envisioned this across the
city.
For an architect, Niemeyer had the dream
commission. He did not disappoint. Architects of America have learned
from him the vital need to integrate design to environment in a manner
which does not merely complement what's already there, but takes what's
already there to new heights of expressions. That, indeed, is Oscar
Niemeyer's legacy to America.
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Casa das
canoas
 |
| |
|
Museo de
Arte Moderno de Río de Janeiro, Brasil
 |
| |
|
Teatro
popular de Niteroi, Brasil
 |
| |
|
Catedral de
Brasilia
 |
|
