Meeting Oscar Niemeyer

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  Portrait of Oscar Niemeyer: Mathieu Salvaign

  There’s a story going around São Paulo at the moment that the last time Fidel Castro was in Brazil he insisted on visiting renowned Brazilian modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer in his studio on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro. Evading the paparazzi and curious onlookers alike he rode the lift from the basement car park to Niemeyer’s studio postponing his return to Cuba in order to exchange views with the master, a member of the Brazilian Communist Party since 1945.

  Quintessentially Brazilian Niemeyer’s buildings have been described as the only independent branch of modern architecture. In order to appreciate them more fully it’s essential to know something about their context. Brazil is an intoxicating and vibrant country to experience: vast, the planet’s fifth largest landmass, exotic, one of the most ethnically diverse peoples in the world and economically divided, despite being one of the most industrialised nations the country’s wealth is held by a tiny percentage of its population. Far from being a third world country Brazil can boast a highly developed infrastructure, has a transportation network of motorways that makes the country easily navigable, most of the larger cities have clean and efficient metro systems – internal flights depart punctually at minute increments. Although the country works on many levels class divides, serious social problems and a boom and bust economic cycle condemn the country of the future to a future that never seems to arrive.
  
  Born in 1907 into a family of Arabic and German origin Oscar Niemeyer has been practising architecture for a very long time, he’s still churning out some of his best work as he approaches his centenary year and is very much present in Brazil’s cultural life. The Niterói Museu de Arte Contemporanea completed in 1996 was described as 'one of the 10 buildings that shaped the decade' by World Architecture Magazine.
  
  As a professional architect Niemeyer’s fortunes have been closely connected to his country’s political history. His career spans most of the twentieth century and is steadily encroaching upon the twenty-first. An early collaboration in 1936 on Le Corbusier’s seminal Ministry of Education and Health (1937-43) in Rio de Janeiro first brought Niemeyer to the attention of his peers. In addition to a huge volume of projects in his native Brazil he was also closely involved with the design of the UN building in New York where he once again collaborated with Le Corbusier. During the 50s he took responsibility for several key commissions in Brasília and served as juror selecting the final master plan for the city. During the military rule between 1964 and the restoration of democracy 21 years later Niemeyer was forced to live abroad where he designed many renowned buildings in Europe and North Africa. Nowadays he leaves the day to day running of the practice to his architect granddaughter and other family members but still maintains a strict regime of work himself. Current projects include of four constituent buildings that will complete Brasilia’s monumental axis as well as a huge development in Niterói the 'Oscar Niemeyer Way '.
  
  His inspiration comes principally from four elements -"'white beaches, huge mountains, old Baroque churches, and beautiful tanned women". Niemeyer has no time for straight lines, the spaces described within his buildings are fluid and sensuous organic and womb like. After successfully negotiating all the tight security measures surrounding his office, in common with most buildings in Brazilian cities, we are directed along the long corridor of the residential Art Déco skyscraper to a period lift that will bring us to the penthouse studio. On turning around against the penumbra of the Carioca morning I get my first glimpse of the small crouched figure, living architectural legend, in rock and roll terms like meeting a superannuated death cheating Jim Morrison still producing great tracks. The studio overlooks the Copacabana strip below and the sensuous curves of the Carioca horizon, an internal partition is decorated with a series of line drawings in Niemeyer’s distinctive style. Eventually we are ushered into the inner sanctum that is Oscar’s private office, filled with books and images of half-naked female bodies and were received by him.
  
  During my travels I had been visiting as many Niemeyer buildings as possible while in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and had been struck by how simple they were and uncluttered with unnecessary details. I was interested to learn his views on the apparent simplicity of many of his buildings, how straightforwardly they are put together lacking many of the contrived detailing of other architects. Niemeyer explains how threshold and weather proofing in Brazil’s tropical climate render such contrivances redundant and the primacy of the silhouette of his buildings. This apparent simplicity is also related to available craft skills and programme budgets. I go on to ask him about the technical aspects of reinforced concrete and how as a material it can evolve beyond the limits that it has already been pushed to. Niemeyer cites Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe as the two great influences on his career, in particular Corbusier’s five points of architecture as well as his dominance of Niemeyer’s preferred material reinforced concrete.
  
  Looking back at the realisation of the ambitious building programme for Brasília, Brazil’s capital designed, constructed and operational within five years, the many social and urban problems involved with designing a city from scratch are self-evident. The master plan prepared by Lúcio Costa one of Niemeyer’s mentors, envisaged a city designed for the car but most of its citizens still cannot afford to buy one. Almost three-quarters of Brasília’s population are forced to live in satellite towns surrounding the capital. Niemeyer, responsible for designing the architectural set pieces within the plan is deeply suspicious about being able to create an egalitarian society through architecture alone. "Those that live here in Brazil know that it is a poor country. Only a very insensitive person could see the misery and feel happy. Thus I have this political preoccupation, which is finally more important than my architecture."
  
  His work is more concerned with lifting the human spirit, awakening appreciation for the natural world around us creating an otherworldly vision of the future. I can’t help thinking how weary Niemeyer must be fielding questions from the constant stream of architects and journalists who come to visit him so regularly at his Copacabana studio, about how many times during his long life he has had to repeat the same opinions and sentiments. Distanced by age, language and culture from myself I’m just fascinated with the fact that he’s still around and in such good shape.
  
  It happens to be the day before Carnaval, the city will soon be launched into the all pervasive craziness that goes along with it, as our conversation winds up I wonder what advice he would give to young architects starting out on their careers. Niemeyer, self-effacing as always maintains that his choices and his approach to making buildings were valid for him and that all designers must similarly follow their own path in life and trust their instinct. With that Oscar wishes us an enjoyable stay in Rio, as we leave the office I recall the dedication in his book 'My Architecture', "The most important thing for me is not architecture, but family, friends and this unfair world that we need to change. Architecture is just a complement" ... and resolve to make the most of Carnaval.

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  Museu de Arte Contemporanea. Niterói, 1991-1996. When completed in 1996 the building was described as 'one of the 10 buildings that shaped the decade' by World Architecture Magazine. Built to house one of Brazil’s most important contemporary art collections and located against the stunning backdrop of the sinuous coastline of mountains and bays surrounding Rio de Janeiro. The form suggests a flying saucer poised for flight hovering above the edge of the bay below. Three floors of varying diameter accommodate the museum collection. Access is via a coiled bright pink ramp that leads from the entrance plaza to the intermediate gallery level.

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  Catedral Metropolitana Nossa Senhora Aparecida. Brasília, 1956-1960. Marking the spot where the city of Brasília was inaugurated in 1960 the building recalls the religious iconography of the crown of thorns or upturned chalice so key to the Catholic religion in Brazil. The ground floor of the Cathedral is sunken two metres below grade and entered via a ramp that is flanked by giant oversized statues of the saints. Inside the light penetrating the domed stained glass roof together with the reflection of the rippling water from the moat surrounding the concrete frame structure combine to create an ever shifting pattern of light and shade following the sun’s path in the sky overhead. Despite its 40m height and two thousand seating capacity the space feels both intimate and otherworldly.
  
  

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  Tancredo Neves Pantheon. Brasília, 1987. Commemorating the 1792 rebellion of Minas Gerais against the central occupying Portuguese power, a significant historical event for Brazil the Pantheon is located directly behind the Congress building. Niemeyer provides a recepticle that manipulates the visitor’s sense of light and space. The entrance via a bridge leads to a reception area and is connected to the upper floor via a completely darkened carpeted stairwell with only the lowest possible light levels to guide the way. The first floor opens out into a volume solely lit by Marianne Peretti’s powerful stained glass masterpiece and the reflected spotlights focused on João Camara’s fresco Tancredo Neves’ death. Disorientated and isolated from the intense sunlight outside the Pantheon provides the visitor with a very moving spatial experience.

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  Congreso Nacional, Monumental Axis, Brasília 1956–1960. The heart of Brazil’s legislative power and jewel in the crown of the Power Complex, the collection of buildings that form Brasília’s administrative core. The entire collection of buildings has been declared an UNESCO World Heritage Site and remains disarmingly futuristic in its architectural expression. The composition consists of twin 28-storey tower blocks and two hemispheres, one of which is inverted that house the Senate Chamber and the House of Representatives below. The forms echo the vastness of the surrounding landscape. Originally accessed by a public ramp open to all nowadays visiting areas are restricted but nonetheless the building manages to anchor the entire administrative axis with its powerful sculptural form.

  Published in b-guided #20 Summer 2004. ©b-guided