São Paulo – Cities attract tourists for different reasons. Rio de Janeiro, for its matchless beauty. São Paulo, because of its intense nightlife and great restaurants. Paris is an open-air museum, New York, an unrivalled cultural centre, Brasília is the seat of power in Brazil… all of these and a few others, however, share a quality that is in itself a reason for attracting visitors: they all are home to at least one curious and recognized work designed by the greatest Brazilian architect.
Oscar Niemeyer, currently aged 103, was born in Rio in December 1907. In 1936, two years after graduating in architecture, he adapted the project of another famous architect, Le Corbusier, for the Ministry of Education in Rio de Janeiro. Although the original plan was not his, the modifications Niemeyer made to the Barão de Capanema building were enough for him to start receiving orders and become known throughout the entire country. Niemeyer basically raised the height of the ground floor columns from four to ten metres.
In addition to the Ministry of Education, Rio de Janeiro was graced with one of Niemeyer’s best known works: Passarela do Samba (known as the Sambadrome). Other creations of his in the city are the Integrated Public Education Centres (Cieps). It is not hard to identify these works: all it takes is to look for the curves that characterize them. He likes them so much that he even wrote a poem once, which goes: “…De curvas é feito o universo” (The universe is made of curves).
For those visiting São Paulo it is not difficult to find a building by him among so many others. After all, Niemeyer’s work sets itself apart from the others anywhere. The Copan building, in the Centre, is Niemeyer’s. As are the Biennial, the Oca, the Ibirapuera Marquee and Auditorium, all located inside the Ibirapuera Park; and the Memorial of Latin America. In addition to the architect’s designs, these locations host great exhibitions and concerts.
Those willing to delve deeper into Niemeyer’s work must visit Belo Horizonte. The Minas Gerais state capital is home to one of his first projects, the Pampulha Architectural Complex, and to one of the last ones inaugurated by the renowned architect, the Minas Gerais Administrative Centre. In the 1940s, Niemeyer planned the Pampulha complex including a church, a casino, a restaurant and a club, by request of the -mayor Juscelino Kubitschek. In 2010 he inaugurated the new seat of the government of the state of Minas.
The success of the Pampulha Complex would lead Niemeyer to the greatest challenge of his life, in the 1960s, when Juscelino Kubitschek, by then the Brazilian president, summoned him to design the buildings of the new federal capital, Brasília. The city harbours Palácio do Planalto (Palace of the Highlands), Palácio da Alvorada (Palace of Dawn), Praça dos Três Poderes (Three Powers Square), Itamaraty (Foreign Ministry), the National Congress, the Cathedral of Brasília… All designed by Niemeyer.
One such creation, Palácio da Alvorada, the residence of the Brazilian president, seems to stand on the narrow foundations of its columns. And to some extent, that is true. The creator of the project himself admits that he took it to an extreme. “We dedicated the utmost attention to the columns, carefully studying them in their spacing, considering technical convenience and the aesthetic effects that we wished to obtain,” says Niemeyer on the website of his Foundation.
The architect’s projects are also a reason for visitors to go far from Brazil. In Algeria, for instance, the Constantine University has Brazilian visitors remembering home, as it is reminiscent of the Oca at Ibirapuera and of the Pampulha Complex. With this work, Niemeyer proved to the Algerian government, in 1969, that it would be possible to build a university with five buildings, instead of the 20 that were deemed necessary.
And how about getting to know the seat of the French Communist Party, in Paris? Niemeyer always claimed to be a communist and it was not long before he accepted the challenge. The façade is, of course, curved and the main hall is below the street level. Attentive visitors will be surprised with a modern building among Paris’ classical ones.
Niemeyer also left his trademark on New York. There, the Brazilian was part of the team of professionals that designed the seat of the United Nations (UN). The buildings that house the UN’s offices, the Security Council and General Assembly meetings are the result of a combination of Niemeyer’s and Le Corbusier’s techniques.
Niemeyer disseminated his technique and took the uses of reinforced concrete to extremes in all corners of the world. However, one cannot refrain from visiting the city that hosts one of his boldest works: Niterói. It is the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC), affectionately nicknamed the “flying saucer.” Round-shaped, with glass walls that provide a 360-degree view of Rio de Janeiro, it proposes for the interaction of the artworks that it houses with the view that it enables.
In addition to the MAC in Niterói, the architect designed Caminho Niemeyer (the Niemeyer Path) in the city, a set of buildings that connect the museum to the centre of the city. These buildings, however, are being built little by little. The MAC came first, inaugurated in 1996. The Popular Theatre has already been built, but not inaugurated. It should start to operate this year, alongside the Petrobras Cinema Museum, also designed by the architect. Caminho Niemeyer should also include a 60 metre tall panoramic tower and the Oscar Niemeyer Foundation headquarters, currently located in Rio.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
