Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer: biography, work. Museum and cultural center of Oscar Niemeyer

Oscar Niemeyer was born in Rio de Janeiro on December 15, 1907. This event took place on the street, which was named after some time by the name of his grandfather Ribeiro de Almeida. This man was the minister of the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court.

The youth of the architect

As Oscar recalled, in his youth he led a bohemian life. The future architect Oscar Niemeyer married when he had finished school. First he worked in a printing house, and then, in 1930, began training at the National School of Fine Arts, located in Rio de Janeiro. Oscar chose the architecture department for himself. After 4 years Niemeyer completed his studies. He went to work in the design studio of Lucio Costa, formerly his teacher. Lucio is the founder of Brazilian architecture in the Art Nouveau style.

Cooperation with Charles de Corbusier

At first Oscar worked for free. In the workshop, he met one person who had a strong influence on his work. It's about Charles Le Corbusier, a French architect. He was a consultant for young masters who worked on the project of the building of the Ministry of Health and Education in Rio de Janeiro. This man immediately noted the talent of Oscar. He instructed him to lead the project.

Niemeyer, thanks to this work, received the glory of an architect, not afraid of experiments. He managed to masterfully combine very unexpected shapes 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 works of Niemeyer, which will manifest in almost every one of the 600 projects he has carried out in different countries.

The Brazilian Pavilion and the Pampuglia 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 Kubichek, who later became president of the country, and then a prefect of the large city of Belo Horizonte (Brazil), instructed him to erect a complex of structures on the shores of the lake. Pampul. It was supposed to be a yacht club and a tennis club, a church, a dance hall, a museum. After the completion of the project Pampuglia became almost the most important tourist attraction of the country. It immediately began to be called the Brazilian architectural gem.

Project of the UN building complex

Oscar Niemeyer became a real celebrity. In 1947, he was a member of a group of architects who worked on a complex of UN buildings in New York. Niemeyer was the youngest among them. The group was headed by American architect Wallace Harrison. The authors sought to ensure that their work had a symbolic, philosophical significance. Niemeyer developed the concept of the "Workshop of Peace." She liked colleagues, the project was approved, but for a number of reasons it was not possible to implement it.

Villa Canoas

The architect-experimenter had many ideas. In particular, the whole world has become famous for one more of his unusual creation - the villa of Canoas. He built it in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro in 1953. Today, this suburb is the prestigious area of San Conrad. According to experts, the solutions used in the construction of this dacha 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, perhaps a millennium. The architect decided to erect the 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 original interior a fantastic interior.

However, this work was just an overture to the cause of the great architect's life, which became the city of Brasilia, the new capital of the state.

Designing the Brazilian capital

Back in the 19th century, the idea arose to move the Brazilian capital, which was then Rio de Janeiro. Then this idea was argued by the fact that Rio, located on the Atlantic coast, in case of an attack, is at greater risk than a city 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 the time.

In 1957, this responsible and honorable task, Juscelin Kubichek, now the President of Brazil, instructed Oscar Niemeyer and Lucio Coste to decide. The latter belongs to the general plan for the construction of the city, and Oskar - the projects of the bulk of residential complexes and buildings. According to experts, the work of these architects became the most famous urban development experiment of that time. Virtually on an empty place in 3 years the city has grown, which immediately became one of the most impressive settlements on the planet. So far, no equal to him on earth. The official opening date was 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. As the Brazilians say, their capital in form resembles an airplane. If you climb a television tower located in the city center, you will see a "flying liner", which consists of unprecedented streets, squares, parks and buildings. In the center is the triangular square of the Three Powers. In the corners of it are 3 buildings: the President's Palace, the Supreme Court and the National Congress. This is the cabin of the plane. "Wings" of it - residential quarters, which are called - the "southern" and "northern" wing. The rest of the capital also has a clear division into sectors - the business sector, hotel, ambassadorial, entertainment zones.

Stuns literally every building that Oscar Niemeyer designed. These attractions surprise us with unexpected forms, daring lines, unusual contours. For example, at the foot of the Twin Congress towers, each of which has 28 floors, an extensive platform is spread. On it are 2 huge bowls - the corps of the House of Representatives and the Senate (pictured above). The first of these bowls is turned upside down and shows a wide dome, and the second one expands to the sky.

The National Theater, executed in the form of a pyramid, also impresses us with its originality. The main part of this building is located underground. Noteworthy is the cathedral with its huge glass cone. This building (pictured below) is surrounded by white columns, sharpened like pencils. They rest against the ground, then, repeating the form of the church, they leave their arrows to the sky.

The building of the cathedral is more like a ship of aliens, landed inadvertently, rather than a temple in the traditional sense. And nearby it is another miracle of architecture - the building of the Palace of Itamarati, which is popularly called the Palace of the 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 apertures. A very unexpected detail for such a serious institution is the large pond that surrounds the Itamaratı Palace from all sides. In it, the fishes are having fun.

We described only the main buildings that Oscar Niemeyer created in the Brazilian capital. His projects are diverse and numerous. In combination, the contrast of the pyramids and domes, rounded bowls and swept columns, parks and squares, strict geometric shapes, logic and spaciousness in the street layout give the city expressiveness and brightness. The more unexpected is the place of work of the Brazilian president - Palace "Planalto" (in the photo below).

Its author is also Oscar Niemeyer. The architecture of this building is very remarkable. This small building in four floors does not look like a palace at all. Only the guard points out that it is here that political decisions are made that affect the fate of the largest state of Latin America.

A lot of public buildings were designed by Niemeyer Oscar. The government, for example, received its Palace in 1960. However, despite such high merits before the state, the architect still had to leave his native country. Let's talk about how it happened.

Life Niemeyer in exile

In 1945, Oscar joined the Communist Party of Brazil and remained faithful to her ideals until his death. The architect designed new cities, but suffered from the fact that he can not eliminate hovels and slums. Niemeyer did not hide his convictions ever. Because of them, he could not stay in Brazil after a military coup took place in the 1960s. Oskar had to emigrate to Europe. He settled in Paris. This forced departure the architect called "unauthorized expulsion". Niemeyer then traveled the world, visited the Soviet Union among other countries, 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 Among Nations" (International Lenin Prize).

As before, the architect worked hard. It seems that the geography of his work is truly boundless: Italy, Germany, France, Lebanon, Congo, Ghana, the USA, Algeria and many other countries. His most famous projects of this period were the Central Committee of the French Communist Party, located in Paris, as well as Mondadori in Milan.

Return to Brazil, the memorial of J. Kubicek

Only in the early 1980s did Oscar Niemeyer return to Brazil. He immediately began to realize his dream - a project of a memorial dedicated to the memory of the "father" of the Brazilian capital, Juscelin Kubicheka. The memorial, the outlines of which remind us of a sickle and 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 the architect

In the last years of his life, Oscar Niemeyer worked in his studio, located in Rio de Janeiro, on the Copacabana seafront. Among his most recent works is the reconstruction of Sambadrom. Back in 1984, this avenue was built with stands. During the carnival, competitions of samba schools are held here. Only by 2012 this prospectus was listed in accordance with the Niemeyer project.

Outstanding Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer died on December 6, 2012 in a hospital in Rio de Janeiro, where he was treated for a month. Oscar did not live until the 105th birthday of just 10 days. His only daughter, Anna Maria Niemeyer, died at the age of 82 in June 2012.

Oscar Niemeyer Cultural Center

This object is in Spanish Aviles and is a giant museum and exhibition complex. Various cultural events are held in the concert and exposition halls of the center - exhibitions of photographers and artists, dance performances and theater productions, concerts and film screenings, teaching lectures and seminars.

This object is interesting from the architectural point of view. It is 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 bizarre shapes. The cultural center, located in Aviles, is the only colored building in the work of Oscar Niemeyer. This decision was not chosen by chance - the building was to become a kind of remedy for depression for the population of a small industrial town. For a long time, they treated Aviles as a "disgusting duckling" in the north of Spain. It was usually associated with the residents of the country with smoking pipes located here steel mills. Together with this exhibition complex, Oscar presented the city with a new life. Construction work was started in 2008, and completed in 2011. Five parts of the center are a cinema center, an observation tower, an auditorium and a central square.

Oscar Niemeyer Museum

Curitiba (Brazil) is a city that is known not only as the youngest city in Brazil. It is here that the famous Niemeyer Museum is located. It is devoted to modern architecture, fine arts, design and video art. The building was completed in 2002. At first this object was called the "New Museum", but received the name of Oscar Niemeyer already in 2003.

This building is also called the "All-Seeing Eye" or "Museum of the Eye" because of its original design. In form it resembles a huge eye hanging in the air. Today the real emblem of Curitiba is the Museum of Modern Art. Oscar Niemeyer started working on the project back in 1967. Then he built a concrete building in the style of modernism for one higher education institution. Later, in 2001, he returned to this project and transformed it. So there was a huge annex of steel mesh, white concrete and mirror glass, known as the Oscar Niemeyer Museum. "Eye" is on the pedestal, in the center of the artificial pond.

His name was firmly inscribed in the history of architecture by the outstanding architect Oscar Niemeyer. His works are known all over the world. They do not cease to amaze and admire our contemporaries.