Oscar Niemeyer
Brazilian architect (1907–2012)
Oscar Niemeyer: concrete, curves and a new capital
From Rio to international modernism
Oscar Niemeyer studied at Rio de Janeiro’s Academy of Fine Arts and worked with architect Lúcio Costa. Their collaboration on the Brazilian pavilion for the 1939 New York World’s Fair brought Brazilian modernism to an international audience. Work on Rio’s Ministry of Education and Health connected Niemeyer with Le Corbusier while he began developing a more sculptural approach.
Giving Brasília its civic image
In 1956 President Juscelino Kubitschek appointed Niemeyer chief architect for Brasília, the planned new capital. Costa prepared the wider urban plan; Niemeyer designed many of its public buildings. Slender supports, open ground levels and bold concrete forms gave institutions such as the Congress and cathedral a visual identity distinct from an ordinary office district.
A career beyond the capital
Niemeyer also contributed to the United Nations headquarters project in New York and designed buildings in Europe and North Africa. The Pritzker Architecture Prize named him a laureate in 1988. His 1996 Niterói Contemporary Art Museum showed that curved concrete remained central to his practice long after Brasília became a symbol of Brazilian modernism.