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Oscar Niemeyer: Architectural Legacy

Ibirapuera Auditorium, So Paulo

Photo by Leonardo Finotti

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there were such a thing as a

body language of nations, deciphering

the way countries present themselves,

then the Brazil projected by the late,

prolific Rio de Janeiro architect OscarNiemeyer would make a fascinating

subject for study.

Known abroad for its raw beauty

and lush nature, at home Brazil has

constructed a public face for its gov-

ernmental institutions that chimes

perfectly with the slogan emblazoned

on its flag: Order and Progress (Ordem

e Progresso). Credit for the vast major-

ity of them lies with Niemeyer; and yet

his colossal, monumental, forward-

facing, even utopian buildings, look

as astonishingly, exuberantly alien inBrazil as they would almost anywhere

else on Earth.

The architect, who died on 5

December 2012, 10 days from what

would have been his 105th birthday,

was a pivotal figure in the construction

of mid 20th century Brazil a nation

in the midst of reinvention, from agri-

cultural giant to, it hoped, a modern,

industrial powerhouse.

One of a generation of Brazilian

architects galvanised by the modernist

styles coming out of Europe, Niemeyergraduated and set to work in 1934, seiz-

ing on new materials, and in particular

reinforced concrete, and pushing its

plasticity into unheard of shapes and

volumes. He was evangelical about concrete until his dying day,

extolling its endless generosity as a material in a long 2006 inter-

view with the Brazilian magazine Caros Amigos. The vocabulary

of concrete is so much richer [than traditional materials] it has

no end, he said. Comparing the 30m- to 40m-wide cupolas ofthe Renaissance period to the almost 80m diameter he achieved

in Braslia (Brazils capital), in the twin domes of the Senate and

Congress (the latter as an upturned bowl), he said: We are living

in a very special moment for architects, because concrete allows

them to do things they never had the opportunity to do before.

On Niemeyers drawing board, a tendency towards brutal-

ism that reinforced concrete has often inspired is occasionally

present, but more often than not it takes flight instead into sym-

phonies of curves, arches and parabolas, slender piloti columns,

and purpose-built, wide-open spaces. In some cases the eye-

shaped Oscar Niemeyer museum in Curitiba, the Congress and

Senate complex the result is buildings that barely even look like

buildings.You can like or dislike the palaces, Niemeyer said refer-

ring to the Braslia works that also include the elegant Palcio da

Alvorada (the Presidents official residence), and the crownlike,

euphoric upward thrust of the Metropolitan cathedral but you

cant say its something youve ever seen before. For those of us in

architecture, thats the ultimate result.

Outside Braslia in one of Niemeyers most celebratedworks as well as a personal favourite the retro-futuristic, fly-

ing-saucer contours of the MAC art museum (1996) at Niteroi

are framed exquisitely, in the unlikeliest of harmonies, against

the black-mountain silhouette of Rio de Janeiro, seen across

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life is more important than architecture: what is important isimproving the state of the human being

Guanabara Bay. In So Paulo, the generous sweep of Ibirapuera

Parks Marquise (1954), an immense concrete shade, runs for

1700m, linking the eclectic set of buildings that Niemeyer was

commissioned to create inside the park which also includes the

monumental Bienal building and the domed Oca. The Marquise,recently renovated, forms an all-weather, all-purpose leisure

space in which people stroll from museum to museum; skate-

boarding teenagers clack and roll on their boards; and small

children toddle about as So Paulos afternoon summer rain hurls

down on either side.

That public access and openness to all-comers, no matter how

highbrow the museum or important the ministry concerned, is one

of the hallmarks of the modern style, and its an aspect Niemeyer

loved. We work for the rich or for government, he told Caros

Amigos, but the poor are watching from afar, finding it beautiful

when it is beautiful, and being amused when it is different. It has to

be different it has to create excitement, and surprise.

A case in point, on the edge of the Marquise, is the exuber-ant perfection of the Auditrio Ibirapuera concert hall: a dazzling

white wedge of a building, crowned by a scarlet lick of concrete

over the entrance, like a flamenco dancers final, exuberant flour-

ish. The building was first drafted in the 1950s, but it wasnt

built until years later, and inaugurated in 2005. Reinforced con-

crete made this, and many dozens of other projects, possible for

Niemeyer, in a career that spanned almost 80 years from 1934 until

shortly before his death in 2012. Years which included impossible

not to have, in a professional trajectory with the length, ambition

and audacity of Niemeyers both highs and lows.

Mercado das Flores, Braslia

Photo by Leonardo Finotti

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There were triumphs like Rios Ministry of Education (1936),

on which Niemeyer worked as part of a team that also included

Le Corbusier; and Braslia, for which Niemeyer was tasked

with creating the public buildings, while his teacher and friend

Lcio Costa drew up the city master plan. There was the UnitedNations building in New York (1947) also the product of an

all-star team of architects; and Niemeyers much-loved Copan

building (1951) in downtown So Paulo a curving architectural

leviathan that houses 5,000 people in apartments ranging from

27m2to 270m2, with shops, cafes, restaurants and services on the

ground floor. There was also the superb headquarters Niemeyer

built in Italy to hous e Mondadori publishers (1968), just outside

Milan, reworking some of the finest aspects of Braslias Foreign

Ministry and adding irregularly spaced pilotis; and the astonish-

ing grace of the Palcio Tiradentes building in Belo Horizonte

(2010) its immense mass suspended under steel cables as part of

the complex for the state government of Minas Gerais.

And there were the now relatively little-known misfits, likethe absent-minded, ugly bulk of So Paulos Edifcio e Galeria

Califrnia, of which Max Bill wrote scathingly, in Architectural

Review in 1954: The walls and pilotis interweave pointlessly,

interrupting and destroying the form: its a gigantic disorder of

the likes Ive never seen. Come across the building unawares on

a Saturday afternoon stroll through So Paulo, and the sensation,

even for someone who relishes the citys architectural thrills and

spills, is memorable. Like a good Stalinist he was a lifelong com-

munist, and president of the Brazilian Communist Party from

1992-96 Niemeyer took the opportunity of Max Bills attack to

make a self-critique, published in 1958, in which he admitted, at

times, having, neglected certain problems, and adopted an exces-

sive tendency towards originality, going on to implicate thosewho had commissioned him and hoping to win fame for their

daring buildings.

But Niemeyer, a lifelong friend of Fidel Castro, a self-imposed

exile from Brazils 1964-85 military dictatorship, and the pro

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bono creator of the French Communist

Party headquarters (1965), had never

intended to change the world through

architecture. Architecture is my work

and I have spent my entire life behindthe drawing board, he said in 2006,

but life is more important than archi-

tecture: what is important is improving

the state of the human being.

A series of discussions on

Niemeyers legacy, held at So Paulos

Ita Cultural in December 2013,

brought together some of the key fig-

ures in modern Brazilian architecture

Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Mrcio

Kogan, Ruy Ohtake and is set to be

followed up in June 2014 with a major

Niemeyer exhibition at the same venue,just as the World Cup kicks off across

the country. Ita Cultural, one of

Brazils most influential cultural pivots,

is located squarely on Avenida Paulista,

which saw some of the worst pro-

tests during June 2013. Whatever June

2014 may bring, as the world watches

Brazil from up close, and as the coun-

trys social movements gear up for yet

more protests, Niemeyer would surely

have been delighted to find himself still

right at the heart of it.

Casa das Canoas, Rio de Janeiro

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