Oscar Niemeyer Between Concrete and Curves
ANDRES C LARA Andres C Lara
Oscar Niemeyer Between Concrete and Curves
ANDRES C LARA
Content s
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Biography
Buildings
Bibliography
Biography
“
I pick up my pen. It flows. A building appears.
”
There it is. There is nothing more to say.
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Niemeyer / Between concrete and cur ves
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Oscar Niemeyer
OSCAR NIEMEYER Overseeing construction of Palacio Da Alvorada. Brasilia, brazil 1958
Niemeyer / Biography
OSCAR NIEMEYER (1907-2012) WAS BORN IN THE HILLSIDE district of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts there. Niemeyer’s architecture, conceived as lyrical sculpture, expands on the principles innovations of Le Corbusier to become a kind of free-form sculpture. In 1938-39 he designed the Brazilian Pavilion for the New York World’s Fair in collaboration with Lucio Costa. His celebrated career began to blossom with his involvement with the Ministry of Education and Health (1945) in Rio de Janeiro. Niemeyer’s mentor, Lucio Costa, architect, urban planner, and pioneer of the Modern architecture in Brazil, led a group of young and architects who collaborated with the Le Corbusier in order to design the building which became a landmark of modern Brazilian architecture. It was while Niemeyer was working on this project that he met the mayor of Brazil’s most wealthiest state, Juscelino Kubitschek, who would later become President of Brazil. As President, he appointed Niemeyer in 1956 to be the chief architect of Brasilia, the new capital of Brazil, his designs complementing Costa’s overall plans. The designs for many buildings in Brasilia would occupy much of his time for many years to come.
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Oscar Niemeyer / Between concrete and cur ves
“As an architect ,” he states, “my concern in Brasilia was to
find a structural solution that would characterize the city’s architecture. So I did my very best in the structures, trying to make them different with their columns narrow, so narrow that the palaces would seem to barely touch the ground. And I set them apart from the facades, creating an empty space through which, as I bent over my work table, I could see myself walking, imagining their forms and the different resulting points of view they would provoke”. Internationally, Ni collaborated with Le Corbusier again on the design for the United Nations Headquarters (1947-53) in New York, contributing significantly to the siting and final design of the buildings. His own residence (1953) in Rio de Janeiro has become a landmark. In the 1950s, he designed an Aeronautical Research Center near Sao Paulo. In Europe, he undertook an office building for Renault and the Communist Party Headquarters (1965) both in Paris, a cultural centre for Le Havre (1972), in Italy, the Mondadori Editorial Office (1968), in Milan and the FATA Office Building (1979) in Turin. In Algiers, he designed the Zoological Gardens, the University of Constantine, and the Foreign Office.
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Niemeyer / Biography
Left Le corbusier, Ni yung, niemeyer and some architects planning the gustavo capanema building, 1936
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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. Oscar Niemeyer
�
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Buildings
“
When you have a large space to conquer, the curve is the natural solution.
�
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Niemeyer / Between concrete and cur ves
OSCAR NIEMEYER, 1936. Capanema Palace Ministry of Education and Health, Rio de Janeiro
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Oscar Niemeyer
Niemeyer / Buildings
Ministry of Education Brazil, 1936 THE PROJECT WAS EXTREMELY BOLD FOR THE TIME. IT WAS the first modernist public building in the Americas, and on a much larger scale than anything Le Corbusier had built until then. Modernism as an aesthetic movement had an enormous impact in Brazil, and the building which housed the office charged with cultivating Brazilian formal culture included various elements of the movement. It employed local materials and techniques, like the blue and white ish ceramic tiles (azulejos) mostly linked to the Portuguese tradition. Despite being a large office building, the structure has a distinct lightness to it, as it is raised on round columns with access unobstructed from surrounding sidewalks and pedestrian areas. The building embraces bold colors and such great contrasts of right angles and flowing curves, such as the vitreousblue curving structures on the roof hiding the water tanks and elevator machinery, a real piece of art.
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Modernism Momenetum The building is especially important in the architectural history of Brazil. Modernism there gained such a great momentum as an aesthetic turning of the page against the “old� Brazil, rural, undeveloped, conservative, and poor. Members of the design group developed a pretty modern architectural vocabulary creating a style that became a virtually official and predominant in the country of Brazil varound the 1980s. Beside Costa, Niemeyer, and Burle Marx, respectively were responsible in the late 1950s and early 1960s for the architecture, layout, and landscaping of the young national capital, Affonso Eduardo Reidy and Burle Marx also worked in the 1950s on Rio’s grand, the modernist bay-side park, the Aterro do Flamengo, in which Reidy designed the Museum of Modern Art.
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Niemeyer / Buildings
OSCAR NIEMEYER, 1936. Capanema Palace Ministry of Education and Health, Rio de Janeiro
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CAPANEMA PALACE Ministry of Education and Health, Rio de Janeiro, detail.
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Niemeyer / Buildings
CAPANEMA PALACE Ministry of Education and Health, Rio de Janeiro, detail.
CAPANEMA PALACE Ministry of Education and Health Inside, detail
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Modernist tropical gardens were laid out by the great landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, and included native plants of Brazil the plant palette, unique at the time. A mid-level roof garden was designed to be seen ‘in a plan view’ from the many floors of office windows above. Trees at ground level included majestic Imperial Palms (Roystonea oleracea).
ROBERTO BURLE MARX’S DESIGN FOR THE MINISTER’S Rooftop Garden, Ministry of Education and Health, Brazil.
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Niemeyer / Buildings
BURLE MAX ROOD TOP GARDEN, detail. Ministry of education and health, Brazil.
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Niemeyer / Buildings
Burle Marx cemented his reputation with a spectacular roof garden atop a mid-rise wing of the high-rise Ministry of Education and Health Building of 1936-1944, designed by a team headed by Costa. Burle Marx’s pulsating biomorphic composition—a series of amoeba-like beds of solidly massed monochromatic blooms and greenery that interspersed with a great contrasting gravel walkways—brings to mind a canvas by Jean Arp or Joan Miró, wherein curvilinear animation that negates those confines of the right-angled periphery. His original gouache for this scheme is included in the Jewish Museum exhibition, but with not sufficient supporting material such as photographs of the finished garden and plant lists, the flat artwork reads more like a pretty carpet than a three-dimensional space meant to be moved through and experienced with all the senses.
BURLE MAX ROOD TOP GARDEN, detail. Ministry of education and health, brazil.
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Oscar Niemeyer / Between concrete and cur ves
GRANDE HOTEL OURO PRIETO Oscar Niemeyer Ouro Preto, Brazil
Niemeyer / Buildings
Grande Hotel Ouro Preto Brazil, 1936 IN HINDSIGHT, AN ARCHITECTURAL DUEL BETWEEN TRADItional and modern with Oscar Niemeyer playing the part of forward thinking designer seems like an unfair fight. But back in the 1938, the odds weren’t necessarily in his favor. The Brazilian city of Ouro Preto (Black Gold), a former mining town and showpiece of colonial architecture in the state of Minas Gerais, lacked a proper, grand hotel to welcome visitors, so the government began a search for a new design. The agency in charge, SPHAN, which stands for Service of the Historic and Artistic National Heritage, had a name that suggests there may have been a conservative bent in the selection process. Formed just a year prior, the group worked to protect and catalog the Brazilian baroque, and no place represented that history more than Ouro Proto, an early city and center of the independence movement (its designation as UNESCO World Heritage site suggests many others agreed). The choice for the hotel design came down to a more traditional scheme by Carlos Leao and the greatest Modernist design by Oscar Niemeyer.
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Oscar Niemeyer / Between concrete and cur ves
GRANDE HOTEL OURO PRIETO Oscar Niemeyer Ouro Preto, Brazil
An associate of Lucio Costa, the 31-year-old was a talented sketch artist who earned a compliment from Le Corbusier himself. He had just finished designing the brise-soleil for the Associação Beneficente Obra do Berço, a hospital in Rio de Janeiro, that firmly placed him within the Modernist camp. Mr. Jose Mariano, a figurehead of the neocolonial movement, called De Niemeyer’s design a “water tank encased in slabs of concrete,” and would later deem the Modernist work of Costa and his colleagues “Jewish, modern architecture” that would destroy tradition. But his invectives didn’t help, as Niemeyer’s design won over the committee after some issues were raised in regards to Leao’s initial scheme, which did not meet the standards.
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Niemeyer / Buildings
While Niemeyer’s design triumphed, it’s important to give credit to the architect’s mentor, Lucio Costa, whose suggestion to replace the steel brise-soleil with ceramic tiles and a wooden roof placated members of the committee who were looking for a design with some connection to the past. The tweak, along with a horizontal alignment that hugged the landscape, stood out among the raised terrain, and gave every room a view of the historic square, turned to Niemeyer’s original blueprint into a fusion of the modern and traditional, perhaps the perfect calling card for a radical architect looking to gain work in a conservative country (remember, one of Niemeyer’ signature early works, the Igreja da Pampulha, was called “the devil’s bomb shelter”.
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Oscar Niemeyer / Between concrete and cur ves
GRANDE HOTEL OURO PRIETO Oscar Niemeyer Ouro Preto, Brazil
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Niemeyer / Buildings
Niemeyer’s design triumphed While the hotel itself didn’t get much play, its reception elevated Niemeyer to the top of the country’s clique of Modernist architects, which gave him center stage at the 1942 MoMA exhibition Brazil builds. Along with his collaboration with Costa on his country’s 1939 World’s Fair pavilion, another New York spotlight that found the young architect telling press he found inspiration in the curves of the female form, Niemeyer had become a hot commodity. It encouraged Brazilian, such as Juscelino Kubitschek, the mayor of Belo Horizonte, to hire him, which would lead to his most revolutionary early work, the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi, in Belo Horizonte. The inclination of the roof, the repetition of a uniform motif on the main floor integrates itself magnificently with the simplicity and lack of pretension of the old buildings. Far from being a pastiche, the building still maintains its contemporary personality, and offers a play of plastic form, resulting from the use of contemporary technology. The solution adopted deserves the greatest praise for preserving the integrity of the monumental city.
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IGREJA DA PAMPULHA Belo Horizonte. Minas Gerais. Brasil
Niemeyer / Buildings
Pampulha Complex Brazil 1940 CREATED IN THE 1940S AS A CENTER FOR LEISURE AND tourism, the Pampulha Architectural Complex elevates and immortalizes Oscar Niemeyer’s modernist style, filled with simple lines and clear colors. It is Composed of four buildings, it is one of the world’s main modernist complexes. It was chosen to become part of UNESCO’s world heritage sites, featuring 19 other Brazilian sites. The mayor of Belo Horizonte, Juscelino Kubistchek, ordered the development of the complex, created by Niemeyer and landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx. The complex is composed of four buildings: a church, a former casino (now a museum), a design center, and the yacht club, all built between 1942 and 1943. “The Modern Complex of Pampulha is a reference in architecture for its use of apparent concrete, which caused an impact back then,” said Leonardo Castriota, professor of architecture at the Federal University of Minas Gerais.
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The Pampulha Modern Ensemble was the centre of a visionary garden city project created in 1940 at Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais State. Designed around an artificial lake, this cultural and leisure centre included a casino, a ballroom, the Golf Yacht Club and the SĂŁo Francisco de Assis church. The buildings were designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer, in collaboration with innovative artists. The Ensemble comprises bold forms that exploit the plastic potential of concrete, while fusing architecture, landscape design, sculpture and painting into a harmonious whole. It does reflects the influence of local traditions, the Brazilian climate and natural surroundings on the principles of modern architecture. The church of San Francisco is the centrepiece of the whole. Although an atheist and communist, Niemeyer was fascinated by churches and Pampulha, completed in 1943.
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PAMPULHA BALL ROOM Belo Horizonte. Minas Gerais. Brasil
Oscar Oscar Niemeyer Niemeyer
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PAMPULHA MODERN ENSEMBLE Belo Horizonte. Minas Gerais. Brasil
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Niemeyer / Buildings
The sensuality of the curve The Pampulha Modern Ensemble was linked to reciprocal influences between European and North America and the Latin American periphery and particularly to a poetic reaction to the perceived austerity of modern European architecture. In establishing a synthesis between local regional practices and universal trends, as well as fostering dynamic links between architecture, landscape design and the plastic arts, Pampulha inaugurated a new direction in modern architecture which subsequently was used to assert new national identities in recently independent Latin American countries back then. The Pampulha ensemble and its innovative architectural and landscape concepts quite reflects a particular architectural history in South America, which in turn helps to reflect a wider socioeconomic changes in the society beyond that region. The economic crises of 1929 prompted demands for people to have a greater inclusion in nation building. These circumstances influenced the design of the new garden city neighborhood of Belo Horizonte as a place that migh could reflect creative and cultural ‘autonomy’ through innovative architectural buildings designed for public use, set in a designed ‘natural’ landscape, well endowed with public spaces for leisure and exercise.
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“
Today, architecture is invention. It isn’t enough to just be rational — It must also be beautiful. Oscar Niemeyer
”
FACE OF THE CHURCH TURNED TO THE LAGOON WITH THE CROSS AND THE BEIFRY. Belo Horizonte. Minas Gerais. Brasil
Oscar Niemeyer / Between concrete and cur ves
If the fusion of architecture with other arts is to be fully understood, there is a need for the restoration of the Burle Marx landscapes which are a crucial aspect of the ensemble. In only two of the components (Casino and Ballroom) have the gardens been completely researched and restored. For the other two components, part of the Church garden has been restored but not the arboretum to the rear of the Church in Dino Barbieri Square, and no work has yet been done on the Yacht Club landscaping (although documentation survives). There is a commitment to address these issues and undertake necessary restoration work on the gardens.
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Niemeyer / Buildings
In terms of buildings, the authenticity of the Yacht Club has been weakened by the heavy modification to the design, particularly by additional buildings which need to be removed, by inserted internal partitions and by the removal of some of its decorative elements. And the authenticity of the Ballroom has been impacted upon by the new entrance, which needs to be removed and the original one recreated. There are now commitments to undertake necessary restoration and reinstatement projects to reverse these changes and strengthen the authenticity of both these components.
FACE OF THE CHURCH TURNED TO THE LAGOON WITH THE CROSS AND THE BEIFRY. Belo Horizonte. Minas Gerais. Brasil
INTERIOR OF THE YATCH CLUB LOUNGE Belo Horizonte. Minas Gerais. Brasil
UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS Oscar / Between concrete and cur ves New YorkNiemeyer ,U.S.A
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Niemeyer / Buildings
U.N Headquarters U.S.A 1947 TWO YEARS AFTER THE LARGEST INTERNATIONAL PEACEkeeping organization was founded, the United Nations began searching for the location of their world headquarters. After numerous offers from several cities around North America, the United Nations settled on a 17 acre plot of land on the banks of the East River in New York City after John D. Rockefeller donated the land. With the effects of World War II still looming throughout the world, the United Nations decided to invited prominent architects from the founding nations to work in collaborative, peaceful manner rather than holding a competition. vIn 1947, the UN commissioned Wallace K. Harrison to lead the international design team to create their new world headquarters to be a symbol of the bright, peaceful future ahead that did not dwell upon the dark past. Although the U.N is not legally bound by the U.S borders, government, or its law, even before its decided location, there was heavy opposition from European nations for considering the U.S.A a possible location.
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UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS Oscar / Between concrete and cur ves New YorkNiemeyer ,U.S.A
UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS New York ,U.S.A
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The architect’s role is to fight for a better world, where he can produce an architecture that serves everyone and not just a group of privileged people.
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Oscar Niemeyer
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It’s modern, International Style aesthetic was an intentional decision by Mr. Niemeyer and the rest of the collaborating architects as a way in which to symbolize change that embodies a sense of “newness” that sheds light on the optimistic future of the world’s nations working together as one unified body rather than the disparate warring units of the past. Unlike Oscar Niemeyer’s glass and steel tower containing all of the diplomat’s offices, Le Corbusier’s heavy, concrete General Assembly building is the heart of the U.N diplomatic enforcement. The low statured building has an iconic dome atop a concavely compressed volume that houses the various departments’ assembly halls. In contrast with Niemeyer’s tower, Corbusier’s hall internalizes all of its functions creating a heavy, masked quality, which evokes a monolithic and powerful stance within the city and the UN complex.
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Niemeyer / Buildings
One of the most important spaces is within Corbusier’s assembly building, which takes place underneath the dome in the center of the building. It is where all of the member states of the United Nations gather to meet on the worlds political, economic, and military issues. The circular space creates a sense of an inclusion that wraps the seated diplomats around the podium and the Secretary General’s desk. In its current state, the United Nations has evolved into an organization of 192 member states. Even though, the site adjacent to the East River has been the permanent residence of the United Nations for over fifty years, there are still attempts from other countries, foreign dignitaries, and even Manhattan residents to persuade the UN to move out of the United States.
UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS New York ,U.S.A
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“
Humanity needs able to survive of daily existen for an instant. Oscar Niemeyer
UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS New York ,U.S.A
s dreams to be the miseries nce, even if only
IBIRAPUERA AUDITORIUM (DETAIL) Oscar / Between concrete and cur ves Sao PauloNiemeyer ,Brazil
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Niemeyer / Buildings
Ibirapuera Auditorium Brazil 1951 THE IBIRAPUERA AUDITIORIUM IS A TIMELESSLY MODERN piece that embodies all those distinctive features that characterize Niemeyer’s architectural style. The initial plans were conceived back in 1954, but the project was actually realized 50 years later. Niemeyer designed the entire park Ibirapuera, whose principal attractions are the auditorium and second hemispherical building, the Oca. Volumetrically the building is a pure geometric block trapezoidal, made of reinforced concrete “as expected since reinforced concrete is the his favorite material”. The most characteristic part of Ibirapuera Auditiorium is its impressive entrance, marked with a red metal marquee in the form of “tongues of fire”, which the architect himself called “Blaze”. The rest of the building is painted in white color, which further accentuates the entrance, constituting an iconic symbol and trademark, not only of the building and its uses, but also of the entire park. The power of this symbol has its own name: “Labareda”, flame in Portuguese. This amazing ensemble, along with Ibirapuera and Oca, is a set of pure geometric volumes.
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IBIRAPUERA AUDITORIUM (DETAIL) Oscar Niemeyer / Between concrete and cur ves Sao Paulo ,Brazil
Internally the layout follows simple principles, with the main functional areas in sequence. On the ground floor one moves from the foyer, to the auditorium and then reaches the scene, while in the basement there are the administrative offices, the music school, dressing rooms and the bar. Another key element is a 20 m. long and 6 m. in height rear door which opens with a mechanical system of pulleys and counterweights that helps to provide a viewing access to viewers outside. This feature of building allows is particularly useful when the weather is nice, at it permits audience sitting outside the building to attend an event. With this huge door open that total capacity of attendees to an even can reach 15,000 people. In the foyer meanders a long handrail wood with iron base accompanied by a spiral that leads to the amphitheater. At the bottom floor, a huge red “wave� imposes itself, a modern sculpture signed by Tomie Ohtake. In the auditorium, the great arch of the front part of the main stage deserves a special mention, with dimensions of 28 m. height, 15 m. depth, and 50 m. length. The capacity of the auditorium is 800 seats, with a provision for 14 wheelchair users, as well as 46 specially designed seats for the obese. The excellent acoustics are due to the wooden reliefs covering the curvaceous walls.
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Niemeyer / Buildings
While the hotel itself didn’t get much play, its reception elevated Niemeyer to the top of the country’s clique of Modernist architects, which gave him center stage at the 1942 MoMA exhibition Brazil builds. Along with his collaboration with Costa on his country’s 1939 World’s Fair pavilion, another New York spotlight that found the young architect telling press he found inspiration in the curves of the female form, Niemeyer had become a hot commodity. It encouraged Brazilian, such as Juscelino Kubitschek, the mayor of Belo Horizonte, to hire him, which would lead to his most revolutionary early work, the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi, in Belo Horizonte. The inclination of the roof, the repetition of a uniform motif on the main floor integrates itself magnificently with the simplicity and lack of pretension of the old buildings. Far from being a pastiche, the building maintains its contemporary personality, and offers a play of plastic form, resulting from the use of contemporary technology. The solution adopted deserves the greatest praise for preserving the integrity of the monumental city.
IBIRAPUERA AUDITORIUM Sao Paulo ,Brazil
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IBIRAPUERA AUDITORIUM Sao Paulo ,Brazil
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Niemeyer / Buildings
IBIRAPUERA AUDITORIUM Sao Paulo ,Brazil
“
Surprise
is key in all art. Oscar Niemeyer
” Oscar Niemeyer
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IBIRAPUERA AUDITORIUM Sao Paulo ,Brazil
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OCA, IBIRAPUERA PARK IBIRAPUERA AUDITORIUM Sao Paulo Paulo ,Brazil ,Brazil Sao
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Niemeyer / Buildings
OCA, Ibirapuera Brazil 1954 OCA IS THE “URHÜT TE” OF BRAZIL, CONSTRUCTED FROM A delicate network both strong and slender wooden beams and covered with fern and palm leafs. Oca meant in the language of the Tupi-Guarani a big house initially without subdivisions, where many families live in common, while in Brazil today it is generic for the “Urhütte”-type. The houses with usually rounded floor plans give shelter up to one hundred people and were built over centuries of time with very simple means. It was formed out of a very special kind of wood craft, which is different from ours, especially concerning the typology of the components, the joints, and the building arrangement. Today, the architecture of Brazil is internationally known for its prominent concrete buildings of the past decades, where especially Mr. Oscar Niemeyer plays an important role. In 1954 Niemeyer erected an exhibition building located in Sao Paulo Ibirapuera Park, which he himself called “Oca”. Although Niemeyer’s concrete building mainly refers to the traditional concept, concerning the openness of the interior and the closure towards the exterior, the material is used in a way that is distant to the simplicity of the former manual labor.
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IBIRAPUERA AUDITORIUM Sao Paulo ,Brazil
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OCA is an exhibition hall inside Ibirapuera Park in Sao Paulo. The palace is hard to miss for its enormous, 10,000 m2, white-painted dome. This magnificent structure was designed and constructed by Oscar Niemeyer in 1951, to commemorate the city’s 400th anniversary. Originally known as Pavilhão Lucas Nogueira Garcez, the building was named after a traditional Native American residence, OCA. OCA was formerly a museum of Aeronautics and Folklore, which then moved out and the building was refurbished.
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Chapter 1 / Earky Career
The exterior has been preserved pretty much in its original form, only repainted a sharper white color, whereas the interior has been thoroughly renovated and added with beautiful curves and ramps. Given the large amount of exhibits, a new air conditioning system had to be installed. Today, OCA is known to be the largest air-conditioned museum in the world. Occasionally, it houses touring exhibitions, e.g. of Indian or Chinese art.
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IBIRAPUERA AUDITORIUM Sao Paulo ,Brazil
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Oscar Niemeyer
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Of course, I have given my engineers some headaches over the years, but they go with me. I have always wanted my buildings to be as light as possible, to touch the ground gently, to swoop and soar, and to surprise.
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ALVORADA PALACE Brasilia ,Brazil
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Alvorada Palace Brazil 1957 THE PALÁCIO DA ALVORADA, BY OSCAR NIEMEYER, WAS the first building to be inaugurated in Brasília, in 1958 (two years before the official inauguration of the city). The name means “Palace of the Dawn”, and was given by Juscelino Kubitscheck himself, who used to always say that “Brasília is a new dawn in the History of Brazil”. The palace became symbol of the modern moviment of Brazilian architecture, of cultural and technical progress of the country. Its columns became symbol of the city, and are present in the flag and coat of arms of the capital of the Republic. Niemeyer used a combination of marble, glass and water. The symmetry of the marble columns combines with the reflex in the glass facade and in the water mirror. The columns touch the ground in one vortex, passing an impression of lightness. The Palace is constantly guarded by a member of the Dragons of Independence. Visitors are allowed to stop the car outside the main gate (there is a parking loot, but no other facilities), which is about 300 meters distant from the Palace.
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Though a residence, it is also an official governmental building with offices, meeting rooms and official function rooms. It set the theme that unified most of the other great Brasilia monuments: tapering space age columns create a porch around a rectangular glass box. The Palace sits to the east side of the city, overlooking the artificial lake, well off the main axis that organizes all the other main buildings. It is three stories, 362 by 100 feet, with one story half-sunken into the greensward. The floating white marble-clad columns are reflected in pools. A wide porch, eighteen feet wide, floored in gleaming polished black granite, circles the building; the greenish glass walls framed in a metal grid and inset. This long veranda floats above the ground, delineating the distant horizon. A walkway on one side leads out to a separate chapel taking the form of a spiral coil. The main floor is an official reception area, with lounges, offices, meeting rooms, banquet rooms, and kitchen. The upper floor is the official residence. The dynamic interpenetration of spaces seen in many Niemeyer residences is subdued here; a balconied two-story space connects the reception areas of the first and second floors, and two ceremonial rooms, the council chambers and music room, are two-story high spaces contained within the volume of the palace. The presidential quarters are a series of elegantly appointed rooms with floor-to-ceiling glass walls looking out toward the lake; a balcony with built-in marble benches stretches along part of the private quarters. The public and private rooms are clad in elegantly restrained materials composed in abstract modernist planes of gold ceramic tiles, mirrors, jacaranda wood panelling and flooring; tapestries, and plain plastered soffits, with interiors designed by Niemeyer’s daughter Anna Maria. Ramps replace interior stairs for formal entrances, a repeated motif that reinterprets Le Corbusier’s early influence. The sunken ground floor contains services areas and a theater.
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ALVORADA PALACE Brasilia ,Brazil
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ALVORADA PALACE Brasilia ,Brazil
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ALVORADA PALACE Brasilia ,Brazil
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Niemeyer / Buildings
Glass Everywhere The palace as built differed from the original design. The proportions of the glass block were originally shorter in height and longer in width; the sculptural columns tapered from a narrow base, widened at the middle, and then tapered to a point at the top; the final design lowered their center of gravity to emphasize the floating veranda. The roof was a promenade roof garden and included a free-form pavilion. An official entry ramp and marquee was eliminated, leaving the simplicity of the great colonnade. ‘With the Alvorada Palace, my objective was to find a solution which was not limited to the characteristics of a grand residence but a genuine palace with a spirit of monumentality and nobility,’ Niemeyer explained. ‘To achieve this, I used a structure which engenders the whole development of the construction by giving it lightness, dignity and this different appearance, as if it had been placed gently on the ground. Accordingly, the columns became slimmer at their extremities and, thanks to the system of arches on which they rest, the slabs have a thickness of 15 cm in the axis of each spacing … in my exploratory research on reinforced concrete, in particular regarding points of support, I terminated them in extremely thin points. The palaces appeared to scarcely touch the ground. I wanted them floating in the sky.’ he wrote.
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Architecture will always express a technical and social progress of the country in which it is carried out. If we wish to give it the human content that it lacks, we must participate in the political struggle.
ALVORADA PALACE Brasilia ,Brazil
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Oscar Niemeyer
ALVORADA PALACE Brasilia ,Brazil
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NATIONAL CONGRESS Brasilia ,Brazil
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National Congress of Brazil Brazil 1958 LOCATED AT THE HEAD OF THE ABSTRACT BIRD-SHAPED city plan by Lúcio Costa, and as the only building within the central greensward of the eastern arm of the Monumental Axis, the palace of the National Congress enjoys pride of place among Oscar Niemeyer’s government buildings in Brasília. The most sober of the palaces on the big Plaza of the Three Powers, the National Congress reflects the strong influence of Le Corbusier, while hinting at the more romantic and whimsical forms that characterize a Niemeyer’s trademark Brazilian Modernism. The concept of a purpose-built capital city in the interior of the country dates back to Brazil’s independence from Portugal following the Napoleonic Wars, and was even enshrined in Brazil’s first Republican Constitution in 1891 .It was not until Niemeyer’s friend and patron Juscelino Kubitschek was elected president in 1956 that progress truly began in earnest. Appointed director of Brasília’s works, “Niemeyer enjoyed a virtual carte blanche over artistic decision making in the creation of the city’s major monuments.”
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Oscar Niemeyer / Between concrete and cur ves
To quiet criticism that Kubitschek had defied a law mandating open competitions for public buildings the project for the master plan of Brasília was opened to a national competition, but Niemeyer was a member of the jury, and the project was awarded to his mentor Lúcio Costa in 1957. As part of Kubitschek’s “Fifty years of progress in five” plan, the new capital city was designed and constructed with seemingly impossible speed, and was inaugurated on April 21, 1960. Perhaps not the most famous or popular of Brasília’s monumental structures (the city seal is a riff on the inverted parabolic arches at the Palácio da Alvorada presidential residence), the National Congress is certainly the most prominent, and the most symbolic of Brasília.
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NATIONAL CONGRESS Brasilia ,Brazil
Rising above the flat roof, two “cupolas” indicate the assembly chambers of Brazil’s bicameral legislature. Previously housed in two separate buildings in Rio de Janeiro, Niemeyer brought the two legislative chambers together in Brasília. Reflective of other seats of power, such the Capitol in Washington, DC, or St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the cupola over the Senate chamber takes the shape of a shallow parabolic dome. In contrast, for the larger Chamber of Deputies, Niemeyer inverted the symbolic dome to create a bowl-like shape. A long ramp leads from a driveway to the building. Split into two segments, one section of ramp leads to the entrance of the building, while the other section leads to the marble clad roof of the plinth.
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NATIONAL CONGRESS Brasilia ,Brazil
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NATIONAL CONGRESS Oscar Niemeyer / Between concrete and cur ves Brasilia ,Brazil
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“
“
Right angles don’t
attract me. Nor straight, hard and inflexible lines created by man. Oscar Niemeyer
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CATHEDRAL OF BRASILIA Brasilia ,Brazil
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Cathedral of Brasilia Brazil 1958 A CHURCH BEARS MUCH IMPORTANCE IN THE SOCIET Y, so the design had to have significance and personality against its surroundings. Oscar Niemeyer was sure to make a statement with the powerful expression and unique form of the Cathedral of Brasilia, which led to his acceptance of the Pritzker Prize in 1988. The cornerstone was laid in early September of 1958, when designs were beginning to be proposed and thoroughly planned out by Oscar Niemeyer. With a diameter of 70m, the only visible structure of the cathedral being sixteen concrete columns with a very peculiar shape. Reaching up towards the sky to represent two hands, the columns have parabolic sections. After the addition of the transparent windows, the Cathedral was dedicated on May 31st of 1970. Figuratively guarding the exterior of the church stand four bronze sculptures, each 3m hg. Hand-painted ceramic tiles cover the walls of the oval-shaped Baptistery, done by Athos Bulcao in 1977. The Cathedral is completed with its bell tower, housing four bells that were donated by Spain. More obvious details of the interior are the stained glass windows, with different shades of blue and white.
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The nave stained glass is made of 16 pieces of fibreglass. These pieces, in colours of blue, white and brown, were fixed between the concrete columns, in triangles of 10 m of base and 30 m of height. They were painted in 1990 by Marianne Peretti. The Altar was donated by Pope Paul VI and the image of the Patroness Our Lady of Aparecida is an replica of the original which is located at Aparecida do Norte, SĂŁo Paulo. Di Cavalcanti made the Way of the Cross, which can be seen in one of the marble walls. Just at the entrance of the Cathedral there is a marble pillar with pictures of some passages of the life of Our Lady, the Mother of God, painted by Athos BulcĂŁo.
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CATHEDRAL OF BRASILIA Brasilia ,Brazil
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Inside the crypt, there is a reproduction of the Shroud of Turin. The Shroud of Turin is the piece of pure linen cloth that was then used to cover the body of Jesus Christ after his crucifixion and before He was laid in the Holy Sepulchre. The original one is today at Turim, Italy (that is why it is known as the Shroud of Turin). It is 4,36 m length by 1,10 m width. On the cloth there are stains of human blood, with the marks of Jesus of Nazareth’s scourging and torment. It is, doubtless, a relic which has much to enlighten the History of Humanity.
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CATHEDRAL OF BRASILIA Brasilia ,Brazil
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“
“
The challenge of
a cathedral is very
good for architectural inventiveness. Oscar Niemeyer
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Oscar Niemeyer
CATHEDRAL OF BRASILIA Brasilia ,Brazil
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CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM OF BRASILIA Brasilia ,Brazil
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Niterói Contemporary Art Museum Brazil 1996 The Niterói Contemporary Art Museum, also know as the MAC, was designed by Oscar Niemeyer and completed in 1996. This iconic saucer-shaped structure, situated on a cliffside above Guanabara bay in the city of Niterói, brilliantly frames the panoramic views of the city of Rio De Janeiro and encapsulates the simple, yet brilliant signature aesthetic of Niemeyer. Speaking of the MAC’s rocky cliffside site, Niemeyer claimed that the “field was narrow, surrounded by the sea and the solution came naturally.” This “natural,” intuitive solution was an elegant, curvy structure that rises from a water basin, creating such an ambient sense of lightness and allowing for full panoramic views of Sugar-Loaf Mountain and the Guanabara bay. Although the MAC is often described as UFO-like, Niemeyer’s poetic intention was for the form to emerge “from the ground” and “continuously grow and spread,” like a flower that rises from the rocks. The sixteen-meter high structure is situated on a paved public square, accessed via a swirling, red-carpeted, 98 meter-long ramp.
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The MAC’s unmistakable iconic form transformed “the city across the way” into a landmark destination and resulted in a small-scale “Bilbao Effect,” drawing visitors predominantly for the remarkable architecture.
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CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM OF BRASILIA Brasilia ,Brazil
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CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM OF BRASILIA Brasilia ,Brazil
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NATIONAL MUSEUM OF BRASILIA Brasilia ,Brazil
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Honestino Guimarães National Museum Brazil 2006 THE HONESTINO GUIMARÃES NATIONAL MUSEUM IS PART of the João Herculino Culture Complex, the very last of the projects conceived by Oscar Niemeyer and Mr. Lucio Costa for the Esplanada dos Ministérios de Brasilia, the monumental and symbol axis of the new city, opened 45 years after its design.Located between the bus station (Rodoviaria), where thousands of federal civil servants get off every morning, and the Metropolitan Cathedral, the new cultural complex is built on a metaphysical esplanade opposite to the Moura Brizola National Library. The library, with more than 500,000 volumes, is the Brazil’s most modern, and the museum seeks to bring part of the cultural life that is centred in São Paulo to Brasilia. One walks between the two white objects as the one who walks inside a painting by De Chirico or a photograph by Gabriele Basilico, with the excitement that is passing through over half a century of a modern adventure that has just recently been completed.
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“
“
There is no reason to design buildings that are more basic and rectilinear, because with concrete you can cover almost any space. Oscar Niemeyer
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NATIONAL MUSEUM OF BRASILIA Brasilia ,Brazil
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The monument is part of the Conjunto Cultural da República, a cultural center open in 2006 and designed by Oscar Niemeyer. Besides the Museum, the Conjunto Cultural also houses Brasília’s National Library. This construction was a tribute to Niemeyer’s 99th birthday. The Museum has an auditorium for 700 people and an exhibition area divided into three floors connected by ramps and a mezzanine. Its space is used for visual arts exhibitions, book releases, seminars and other events. When you enter the building, it feels like you are entering an empty space, because the only thing you see is the immense concrete ceiling formed by the dome. As you walk inside, you start to see its enormous internal area.
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NATIONAL MUSEUM OF BRASILIA Brasilia ,Brazil/ Buildings Niemeyer
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CENTRO CULTURAL OSCAR NIEMEYER Asturias, Spain
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Oscar Niemeyer International Cultural Center of Asturias Spain 2006 THE OSCAR NIEMEYER INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL CENTER IS a cultural complex located in Aviles, Asturias in Spain. The cultural center was designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, world renowned for his emblematic buildings in Brasilia, Brazil. The Oscar Niemeyer International Cultural Center aims to integrate all types of contemporary and performing arts including exhibitions, music, theatre and dance, gastronomy, lecture and education. The project is part of a wide urban regeneration process that is focused on reviving the city of Aviles which was severely degraded during industrialization in the 1950s. The centenarian architect, the only live architect (as of 2011) whose work has been declared a UNESCO Human Heritage site, received the Prince of Asturias Award in the 1989. It was at this time that Oscar Niemeyer began a relationship with the region of Asturias. In fact, the architect donated the International Cultural Center project to the Principality to create the center that bears his name.
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“
For me beauty is valued
“
more than anything, the beauty that is manifest
in a curved line or in an act of creativity. Oscar Niemeyer
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The auditorium The auditorium, Niemeyer-signature, with 26 meters high, this spectacular structure is the highest building of the Niemeyer Center, and also the most difficult one to be built because of its complexity forms and curves. Example of democratization of art it will be without balconies, it will have 998 seats in unique stalls. The Hall is thought to be also available as an exhibition room. A small chamber room has been built under the stage; it will work as a studio to lodge special events. Another feature of this hall is the “big window�, the gate of the stage. It is the most singular part, it offers the chance of opening it towards the square and so that, to extend the stage outside, so that outdoor show will be immediately available to thousands of people. This is the scene for greatest events: the concerts, meetings and worldwide cultural forums.
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CENTRO CULTURAL OSCAR NIEMEYER Asturias, Spain
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CENTRO CULTURAL OSCAR NIEMEYER Asturias, Spain
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The Dome It is well-lit exhibition space of 2,500 square meters big. It should stress the unusual system used for the implementation of the dome: a PVC membrane of 18 meters high was inflated and projected from within the concrete. Inside the dome, four tons amazing lamp is hanging, it was completely made by Oscar Niemeyer as well as the spectacular spiral staircase, his banner work of harmony, grace and elegance. The dome will be open with “La Luz� (Light) the exhibition, leaded by film director Carlos Saura, that will draw and spread all the aspects of this element. Carlos Saura is one of the most successful and prestigious Spanish film directors, recognized by all major worldwide festivals. Winner of the Golden Bear in Berlin, Cannes Jury Prize and nominated twice for Oscars is one of our most prominent and widely acknowledged artists.
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CENTRO CULTURAL OSCAR NIEMEYER Asturias, Spain
CENTRO CULTURAL OSCAR NIEMEYER Asturias, Spain
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“
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Architecture is my work, and I’ve spent my whole life at a drawing board, but life is more important than architecture. What matters is to improve human beings. Oscar Niemeyer
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Bibliography Paul Andreas; Ingeborg Flagge (editors). Oscar Niemeyer: A Legend of Modernism. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press. 2003. 144pp. Deutsches Architektur Museum. Josep M. Botey. Oscar Niemeyer. Gustavo Gili. 1996. 255pp. Alan Hess. Oscar Niemeyer: Houses. New York, NY: Rizzoli. 2006. 240pp. Gilbert Luigi. Oscar Niemeyer: Une Esthétique de la Fluidité. Parentheses. 1987. 158pp. Oscar Niemeyer. The Curves of Time. London: Phaidon. 2000. 192pp. Stamo Papadaki. The Work of Oscar Niemeyer. New York: Reinhold. 1950. 220pp. Stamo Papadaki. Oscar Niemeyer: Works in Progress. New York: Reinhold. 1956. 192pp.
Miguel Alves Pereira (editor). Arquitetura, Texto e Contexto: O Discurso de Oscar Niemeyer. Brazil: Editora UnB. 1997. 199pp. Language: Portuguese. Critical essays. Lionello Puppi. A Arquitetura de Oscar Niemeyer. SĂŁo Paulo, Brazil: Revan. 1987. 172pp. Language: Portuguese. David Kendrick Underwood. Oscar Niemeyer and the Architecture of Brazil. New York: Rizzoli. 1994. 208pp.
“Curves are the essence of my work because they are the essence of Brazil, pure and simple.�
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