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1907–2012 Brazil
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012) was a Brazilian architect of the international modernist school best known for designing civic buildings in Brasília, a planned city which became the capital of Brazil in 1960, and (in collaboration with others) the New York headquarters of the United Nations.
Also known as: Niemeyer, Oscar
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My work is not about "form follows function," but "form follows beauty" or, even better, "form follows feminine."
Here, then, is what I wanted to tell you of my architecture. I created it with courage and idealism, but also with an awareness of the fact that what is important is life, friends and attempting to make this unjust world a better place in which to live.
The Curves of Time: The Memoirs of Oscar Niemeyer (2000)
My ambition has always been to reduce a building’s support to a minimum. The more we diminish supporting structures, the more audacious and important the architecture is. That has been my life’s work.
It's funny, the power of beauty, to make us forget such injustice. É estranho o poder da beleza, que nos faz esquecer tanta injustiça.
I had some good opportunities. I was lucky to have had the chance to do things differently. Architecture is about surprise.
I was attracted by the curve — the liberated, sensual curve suggested by the possibilities of new technology yet so often recalled in venerable old baroque churches.
The Curves of Time: The Memoirs of Oscar Niemeyer (2000)
Architecture was my way of expressing my ideals: to be simple, to create a world equal to everyone, to look at people with optimism, that everyone has a gift. I don’t want anything but general happiness. Why is that bad?
Humanity needs dreams to endure misery, even if just for an instant.A humanidade precisa de sonhos para suportar a miséria, nem que seja por um instante.
It is not the right angle that attracts me, nor the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. What attracts me is the free and sensual curve — the curve that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuous course of its rivers, in the body of the beloved woman.
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.
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