EncyclopediaNiemeyer Soares, Oscar
Niemeyer Soares, Oscar (ooskär' nē'mīur sooä'rus) [key], 1907–, Brazil's foremost 20th-century architect, b. Rio de Janeiro. Influenced by Le Corbusier, Niemeyer developed an architecture noted for its daring conception, purity of line, and formal lyricism; it is frequently characterized by curving forms and soaring spans of reinforced concrete. Offering an alternative to the strict rectangles of the International style, he frequently worked with organic shapes and is often credited with introducing sensuality into modernist architecture. He was one of the chief collaborators in the design of the ministry of education in Rio de Janeiro (1937–43), which marked the first use of the modernist curtain wall. With Lúcio Costa and P. L. Wiener, Niemeyer designed the Brazilian Pavilion for the New York World's Fair in 1939. For Pampulha, in Belo Horizonte, he planned several major buildings, notably its casino. In 1947 he collaborated on the design for the United Nations headquarters in New York City.
Niemeyer directed the creation of Brazil's new capital, Brasília (1950–60), within Costa's master plan. His remarkable original work on this project brought him enormous acclaim, and it is usually considered his masterpiece. In later years, the city has been widely criticized as a mistake in urban planning, ill-conceived because it has no relation to its jungle site or, with its wide soulless spaces, to the patterns of life in Brazil. Nonetheless, the government buildings designed by Niemeyer—particularly the presidential residence, foreign ministry, and Supreme Court—continue to win high praise for their graceful moderninsm. Niemeyer's later buildings include the headquarters for the French Communist party in Paris (1965), the Mondadori Publishing House in Milan (1968), Constantine Univ. in Algeria (1969), and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Niterói, just outside Rio (1996). In 1988 Niemeyer was awarded the Pritzker Prize.
See his memoir, The Curves of Time (tr. 2000); biographical studies by S. Papadaki (1960) and R. Spade, ed. (1971); studies by D. K. Underwood (1994), M. Salvaing (2002), and A. Hess (2006).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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