06 Dec Brasilia´s Creator Oscar Niemeyer dies aged 104
Metropolitan Cathedral in Brasília, a circular, crownlike structure that splays open at the top to let light spill down into the main sanctuary
Architect Oscar Niemeyer has died a week before his 105th birthday.
He had a giant vision when nowhere was a starter for Brasilia, the capital which Brazil decided to erect in the ‘middle of nowhere’ to herald the 21st century. He built every building any capital would need: parliament, cathedral, concert hall, library, station, stadium, and more. It is a stunningly cohesive ensemble.
His style took in space-age forms in concrete and nods to neo-classicism, but had no room for the people who would have to use it; the vision was everything to Niemeyer, a single-minded pursuit of purity of form, and the beauty of a sweeping skyline. The international “Brazilian” style was born.
He began in the 1930s, and worked with Le Corbusier when he was visiting Brazil with his ideas about “machines for living in”. Niemeyer decided he would make machines of the future.
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