Niemeyer, Oscar

Niemeyer (Soares Filho), Oscar

(born Dec. 15, 1907, Rio de Janeiro, Braz.) Brazilian architect. Beginning in 1934, he worked in the office of Lúcio Costa, an early exponent of the Modern movement in Brazil. Niemeyer's first major independent project was the plan for Pampulha (1941), a suburb of Belo Horizonte. The project is notable for the free-flowing forms used in many of its buildings. Other commissions followed, and in 1947 Niemeyer represented Brazil in the planning of the United Nations buildings in New York City. In 1956 Niemeyer was asked to design the new capital city of Brasília; he agreed to design the government buildings but suggested a national competition for the master plan, a competition subsequently won by his mentor, Costa. Niemeyer served as chief architect for NOVA-CAP, the government building authority in Brasília, from 1956 to 1961. Among the Brasília buildings designed by Niemeyer are the President's Palace, the Brasília Palace Hotel, the presidential chapel, and the cathedral. Active into his nineties, he was commissioned to design the mushroomlike Museum of Contemporary Art in Niterói, Braz. (1991). With its lyrical and sculptural forms, his work is free-flowing and optimistic. Niemeyer received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1988.

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Niemeyer, Oscar 

(full name, Oscar Niemeyer Soares Filho). Born Dec. 15, 1907, in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian architect. Member of the Communist Party of Brazil.

Niemeyer graduated from the National School of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro in 1934. He entered the office of L. Costa in 1932. Niemeyer subsequently was among the founders of the modern school of Brazilian architecture. He introduced new ways of using reinforced concrete and developed its artistic possibilities. These innovations made possible expressive designs characterized by bold forms, ingenious layout, and a sculptural quality. His works in this spirit include a sports and entertainment complex (1942–43) in Pampulha (near Belo Horizonte); the Boavista Bank (1946), the architect’s home (1953), the South American Hospital (1953), and the Hotel National (1970) in Rio de Janeiro; and the Museum of Fine Arts (1955–56) in Caracas, Venezuela.

In 1957, Niemeyer was asked to design the city of Brasilia. His designs for the city are expressive, contrasting the unusual shapes (domes, pyramids, cuplike forms, and arrowlike columns) of the government buildings with the severe geometric forms of the residential complexes.

In the 1960’s and early 1970’s, Niemeyer designed and constructed public buildings in Ghana, Lebanon, France, Italy, and Algeria. Among these was the building for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of France (Paris, 1966–71).

Niemeyer is a member of the Presidium of the World Peace Council. In 1963 he was awarded the International Lenin Prize for Strengthening Peace Between Nations.

WORKS

Moi opyt stroitel’stva Brazilia. Moscow, 1963. (Translated from Portuguese.)

REFERENCES

Khait, V. L., and O. N. Ianitskii. Oskar Nimeier. Moscow, 1963.
Papadaki, S. O. Niemeyer. New York, 1960.
L’architecture d’aujourd’hui, 1974, no. 174.