Still ahead of the curve

Over a stellar career spanning almost 80 years, Oscar Niemeyer has created some of the most controversial and iconic buildings of the twentieth century. Like his work, his life has been extraordinary; at 100 years of age, he is still working prolifically, arriving at his office in Rio de Janeiro every morning and toiling with an energy that would put many people half his age to shame.

A string of high-profile projects, including the 1956 commission for designing every building in Brazil’s capital, Brasília, have ensured Niemeyer’s legacy. It is a legacy which is truly international; Niemeyer designed the Communist Party Headquarters in Paris, was part of the team that worked on the UN Building in New York, and is currently working on a cultural centre in Asturias, northern Spain.

Niemeyer’s work is characterised by vast open spaces and immense white swathes of reinforced concrete which echo Brazil’s sweeping sandy beaches and sun-bleached mountainsides. It is a body of work in stark contrast to that of many of his modernist contemporaries; he eschews the harsh angles and straight lines of twentieth-century brutalism in favour of soft curves inspired by the human body and other natural forms.

Often his buildings look like they have just landed from outer space; the hyperboloid structure of the Cathedral of Brasília still looks like one of the most modern, uncompromising – and alien – buildings in the world even now, more that 50 years after it was built.

The creation of the city of Brasília itself can be seen as an attempt to impose an order not found in other Brazilian cities like the rambling Rio de Janeiro, as well as an attempt by the country’s former president, Juscelino Kubitschek, to stamp his mark on the nation’s landscape.

Brasília’s success as a feat of architectural prowess is unquestionable – its success as a city for people to live and work in, however, is debatable. To some it is a symbol of the massive differences in wealth across Brazil, with the rich living in glass and concrete modernist palaces and the poor – including many of those who physically built the city – living in bedroom apartments on the outskirts.

Even Niemeyer himself said in a 1998 interview, “To be really honest, I prefer Rio de Janeiro much more than Brasília. I like the mess, even with the violence… I want the beach, the mountains, the chaos. I still want Rio.” For the tourist though, Brasília is still well worth a visit, if only to marvel at its Bond-villain-layer-like magnificence.

It is ironic that the final outcome of the Brasília project clashes so fundamentally with Niemeyer’s own political beliefs. A lifelong Communist, Niemeyer endured political exile for twenty years after the coup in 1964 which saw Brazil enter a military dictatorship. His friend Fidel Castro once famously said: “Niemeyer and I are the last Communists on this planet.”

As you would expect from a man who has had such a long and varied life, Niemeyer has a wealth of anecdotes. One of his favourites is about an occasion when Castro came to visit him several years ago: “Fidel came to see me here, late at night, and the elevator broke down. It’s very old. So I rang a neighbour and asked if my friend could come through his apartment. He was in his pyjamas and, I think, a little surprised to watch four giant bodyguards and then Castro walking past his bedroom. Fidel gave him a cigar.”

When Niemeyer returned to the country of his birth in 1985, he still had ambitious plans – and he entered into one of the most productive periods of his career. In 1988 he was awarded the hugely prestigious Pritzker Prize for Architecture in recognition of his work. For many, this would be a fitting end to a life spent pushing boundaries, and a crowning achievement to an illustrious career. Niemeyer, however, has never been one to rest on his laurels.

In 1996, at the age of 89, he created perhaps his most successful work, the Niterói Contemporary Art Museum (opposite) – a building so distinctive that some have claimed that it overshadows the works of art housed inside. Perched on the side of a cliff overlooking the ocean, the Niterói somehow manages to simultaneously blend in with its surroundings and to look distinctly other-worldly, and combines an ethereal elegance with a virtuoso feat of heavy engineering.

For Niemeyer, people have always come before buildings, a fact which makes for a slightly awkward relationship between his works – epic monuments designed for the political and social elite – and his life as a socially conscious everyman. As well as designing houses for presidents and massive public edifices though, Niemeyer has been known to create on a slightly more domestic scale; he recently designed and built a house as a gift to his driver, an employee and friend for over 50 years. In his own words, “One needs to have a worthy place to live, and the state should provide it to everybody. But I insist that the answer to this change is not architecture. It is revolution.”

“Anyone who is going to be an architect should invest part of his time in the knowledge of humanism. I spent my life at this desk, but I never fooled myself. I always knew that life is much more important than this—to feel is more important, to be nice to people is more important. To be useful is much more important to me than my architecture.”