OSCAR NIEMEYER

Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (December 15, 1907 December 5, 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer was a Brazilian architect who is considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was best known for his design of civic buildings for Braslia, a planned city that became Brazil's capital in 1960, as well as his collaboration with other architects on the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. His exploration of the aesthetic possibilities of reinforced concrete was highly influential in the late 20th and early 21st centuriesOscar Niemeyer in the 1950s

I am not attracted to straight angles or to the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. I am attracted to free-flowing, sensual curves. The curves that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuousness of its rivers, in the waves of the ocean, and on the body of the beloved woman. Curves make up the entire Universe, the curved Universe of Einstein Oscar Niemeyer

My architecture followed the old examples -beauty prevailing over the limitations of the constructive logic. My work proceeded, indifferent to the unavoidable criticism set forth by those who take the trouble to examine the minimum details, so very true of what mediocrity is capable of. It was enough to think of Le Corbusier saying to me once while standing on the ramp of the Congress: `There is invention here -Oscar Niemeyer

There is a moment in a nation's history when one individual captures the essence of that culture and gives it form. It is sometimes in music, painting, sculpture, or literature. In Brazil, Oscar Niemeyer has captured that essence with his architecture. His building designs are the distillation of colors, light and sensual imagery of his native land. Although associated primarily with his major masterpiece, Brasilia, the capital city of Brazil, he had achieved early recognition from one of his mentors, Le Corbusier, going on to collaborate with him on one of the most important symbolic structures in the world, the United Nations Headquarters. Recognized as one of the first to pioneer new concepts in architecture in this hemisphere, his designs are artistic gesture with underlying logic and substance. His pursuit of great architecture linked to roots of his native land has resulted in new plastic forms and a lyricism in buildings, not only in Brazil, but around the world. For his lifetime achievements, the Pritzker Architecture Prize is bestowed. -Pritzker prize jury citation

Oscar Niemeyer Museum (NovoMuseu), Curitiba, Brazil The Oscar Niemeyer Museum is located in the city of Curitiba, in the state of Paran, in Brazil. It was inaugurated in 2002 with the name Novo Museu or New Museum. With the conclusion of remodeling and the construction of a new annex, it was reinaugurated on July 8, 2003, with the current denomination to honor its famous architect who completed this project at 95 years of age. It is also known as Museu do Olho or Museum of the Eye, due to the design of the building

The museum features many of Niemeyer's signature elements: bold geometric forms, sculptural curved volumes placed prominently to contrast with rectangular volumes, sinuous ramps for pedestrians, large areas of white painted concrete, and areas with vivid murals or paintings. A collaborator previously on Ibirapuera Park with landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, Niemeyer's namesake museum is also within a garden designed by Burle Marx, and that within 144 thousand square meters of woodland. Though rooted in modern architecture since his involvement in the international style, Niemeyer's designs have much in common with postmodern architecture as well and this is as contemporary a building as the artwork it displays

The Palcio da Alvorada is the official residence of the President of Brazil. It is located in the national capital of Braslia, on a peninsula at the margins of Parano Lake. The building was designed by Oscar Niemeyer and built between 1957 and 1958 in the modernist style. It has been the residence of every Brazilian president since Juscelino Kubitschek. The building is listed as a National Historic Heritage Site

Palacio da Alvorada State Room

The Cathedral of Braslia, This concrete-framed hyperboloid structure, appears with its glass roof to be reaching up, open, to heaven. Most of the cathedral is below ground, with only the 70-meter (230 ft) diameter 42-meter (138 ft) roof of the cathedral, the ovoid roof of the baptistry, and the bell tower visible above ground. The shape of the roof is based in a hyperboloid of revolution with asymmetric sections. The hyperboloid structure consists of 16 identical concrete columns assembled on site. These columns, having hyperbolic section and weighing 90 tonnes (99 tons),represent two hands moving upwards to heaven.

Metropolitan Cathedral of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil, 1970

In the square access to the cathedral, are four 3-meter (9.8 ft) tall bronze sculptures representing the four Evangelists created by sculptor Dante Croce in 1968. A 20-meter (66 ft) tall bell tower containing four large bells donated by Spanish residents of Brazil and cast in Miranda de Ebro also stands outside the cathedral, to the right as visitors face the entrance. At the entrance of the cathedral is a pillar with passages from the life of Mary, mother of Jesus,painted by Athos.

A 12-meter (39 ft) wide, 40-centimeter (16 in) deep reflecting pool surrounds the cathedral roof, helping to cool the cathedral. Visitors pass under this pool when entering the cathedral.

The Niteri Contemporary Art Museum (Museu de Arte Contempornea de Niteri MAC) is situated in the city of Niteri, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and is one of the citys main landmarks. It was completed in 1996. Designed by Oscar Niemeyer with the assistance of structural engineer Bruno Contarini, who had worked with Niemeyer on earlier projects, the MAC-Niteri is 16 meters high; its cupola has a diameter of 50 metres with three floors. The museum projects itself over Boa Viagem (Bon Voyage, Good Journey), the 817 square metres (8,790 sq ft) reflecting pool that surrounds the cylindrical base like a flower, in the words of Niemeyer.

Niteri Contemporary Art Museum, Niteroi, Brazil, 1996

The Church of Saint Francis of Assisi (Igreja de Sao Francisco de Assis, commonly known as the Igreja da Pampulha) is a church in Pampulha region of Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil. It was designed by the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer in the organic modern style. It is the first listed modern architectural monument in Brazil and consists of four undulating concrete parabolas with outdoor mosaics.

The church was controversial from the beginning. The mayor of Belo Horizonte, Juscelino Kubitschek, was the patron of the project. Niemeyer said that he was inspired by the French Poet Paul Claudel's statement: "A church is God's hangar on earth," but Time Magazine wrote that the Archbishop of Belo Horizonte, Antonio dos Santos Cabral, saw it as "the devil's bomb shelter." Despite its completion in 1943 and Kubitschek's call for its consecration, it was not consecrated until 1959; Archbishop Cabral opposed both its architectural and artistic forms, particularly the mural of St. Francis behind the altar painted by Candido Portinari. He proclaimed the church "unfit for religious purposes."

Latin America Memorial The Latin America Memorial is a cultural, political and leisure complex, inaugurated in 1989, in So Paulo, Brazil. The architectural setting, designed by Oscar Niemeyer, is a monument to the cultural, political, social and economic integration of Latin America, spanning an area of 84,482 square meters. Its cultural project was developed by Brazilian anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro. It is a public foundation, financially and administratively autonomous, maintained by the state government.

The Memorial promotes exhibitions, conferences, debates, video sessions, theater, dance and music performances. It also has a research center specializing in Latin American issues and keeps an active bibliographic production. From 1989 to 2007, the Memorial also served as a host to the Latin American Parliament.

The National Congress of Brazil is the legislative body of Brazil's federal government. Unlike regional legislative bodies Legislative Assemblies and City Councils -, the Congress is bicameral, composed of the Federal Senate (the upper house) and the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house). On December 6, 2007, the Institute of Historic and Artistic National Heritage decided to declare the building of the National Congress a historical heritage of the Brazilian people. The building is also among the UNESCO WorldHeritage Sites, as part of Braslia's original urban buildings, since 1987.National Congress BuildingBraslia, Federal District, Brazil

Exterior, on a rainy day

Mondadori headquarters, designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer.

Arc of the Apotheosis, at the Sambodrome

ALDO ROSSI

Aldo Rossi (May 3, 1931 September 4, 1997) was an Italian architect and designer who accomplished the unusual feat of achieving international recognition in four distinct areas: theory, drawing, architecture and product design

His earliest works of the 1960s were mostly theoretical and displayed a simultaneous influence of 1920s Italian modernism (see Giuseppe Terragni), classicist influences of Viennese architect Adolf Loos, and the reflections of the painter Giorgio de Chirico. A trip to the Soviet Union to study Stalinist architecture also left a marked impression. In his writings Rossi criticized the lack of understanding of the city in current architectural practice. He argued that a city must be studied and valued as something constructed over time; of particular interest are urban artifacts that withstand the passage of time. Rossi held that the city remembers its past (our "collective memory"), and that we use that memory through monuments; that is, monuments give structure to the city.

Stalinist architecture also referred to as Stalinist Gothic, or Socialist Classicism, is a term given to architecture of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, between 1933, when Boris Iofan's draft for Palace of the Soviets was officially approved, and 1955, when Nikita Khrushchev condemned "excesses" of the past decades and disbanded the Soviet Academy of Architecture. Stalinist architecture is associated with the socialist realism school of art and architecture.

Aldo Rossi won the prestigious Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1990. Ada Louise Huxtable, architectural critic and Pritzker juror, has described Rossi as "a poet who happens to be an architect."

Rationalism is a term referring to an architectural current which mostly developed from Italy in the 1920s-1930s. Vitruvius had already established in his work De Architectura that architecture is a science that can be comprehended rationally.This formulation was taken up and further developed in the architectural treatises of the Renaissance. Progressive art theory of the 18th-century opposed the Baroque use of illusionism with the classic beauty of truth and reason.

Neo-rationalism. In the late 1960s, a new rationalist movement emerged in architecture, claiming inspiration from both the Enlightenment and early-20th century rationalists. Like the earlier rationalists, the movement, known as the Tendenza, was centered in Italy. Practitioners include Carlo Aymonino (1926-2010), Aldo Rossi (193197), and Giorgio Grassi. The Italian design magazine Casabella featured the work of these architects and theorists.

Rossi's book L'architettura della citt, published in 1966, and translated into English as The Architecture of the City in 1982, explored several of the ideas that inform Neo-rationalism. In seeking to develop an understanding of the city beyond simple functionalism, Rossi revives the idea of typology, following from Quatremre de Quincy, as a method for understanding buildings, as well as the larger city. He also writes of the importance of monuments as expressions of the collective memory of the city, and the idea of place as an expression of both physical reality and history.

Pritzker prize jury citation

Architecture is a profession in which talent matures slowly. It is a discipline which requires many years of thoughtful observation, of testing principles, of sensing space, and experiencing the many moods necessary for seasoning and nurturing. Wunderkind in architecture are extremely rare. The array of abilities that permit an architect to work with a sure hand and achieve the intended result allows for no shortcuts. An architect who would be the best he can be must serve a lifetime apprenticeship, well beyond that required for official licensing. He must know human behavior, understand structures and materials, and how to shape forms and spaces to serve intended purposes in inspired and original ways. The Pritzker Architecture Prize Jury has found these qualities and more in Aldo Rossi, and have selected him as the 1990 Laureate.

Known for many years as a theorist, philosopher, artist and teacher, Rossi has spent time developing his architectural voice, and pen. Words as well as drawings and buildings have distinguished him as one of the great architects. As a master draftsman, steeped in the tradition of Italian art and architecture, Rossi's sketches and renderings of buildings have often achieved international recognition long before being built. His book, Architecture and the City, published in 1966, is a text of significance in the study of urban design and thinking. Out of this theoretical base came designs that seem always to be a part of the city fabric, rather than an intrusion. Each of Rossi's designs, whether an office complex, hotel, cemetery, a floating theatre, an exquisite coffee pot, or even toys, captures the essence of purpose.

Rossi has been able to follow the lessons of classical architecture without copying them; his buildings carry echoes from the past in their use of forms that have a universal, haunting quality. His work is at once bold and ordinary, original without being novel, refreshingly simple in appearance but extremely complex in content and meaning. In a period of diverse styles and influences, Aldo Rossi has eschewed the fashionable and popular to create an architecture singularly his own. On a solid foundation of theory, he uses his talents and ability to solve design problems in memorable and imaginative ways. His influence is extensive and expands with every new commission. With this honor, Aldo Rossi joins a dozen architects already singled out for their contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture. -Pritzker prize jury citation

The grounds on which Aldos cemetery was built was first the home of an ancient cemetery by architect Cesare Costa carried out from 1858 to 1876, containing a vast amount of hand carved and engraved statues and tombstones. The cemetery built by Aldo is an analogical route through all of these images of the house of the dead.Aldo Rossi's original competion winning design.

Drawing for San Cataldo Cemetery, Modena, Italy, 1971

Aldo Rossi's competition winning design for the San Cataldo Cemetery is a seminal work, coming as it did at a time when architects were questioning the tenets of the Modern Movement. The project is fascinating and baffling at the same time. One is drawn in by its metaphysical and evocative forms, but also left a bit disturbed by its fascistic overtones. Rossi has of course addressed these points with penetrating insight and intelligence. For me, the references to all sorts of other architectures, from factories and walled cities to, alas, concentration camps and prison walls only serves to give the project more poetic charge. I have recently made a 3D interpolation of the project based on a mixture of his winning 1971 scheme and changes he made up to 1976.

The project is Rossi's clearest interpretation of his ideas regarding architecture and the city. One can say that the city itself is the collective memory of its people, and like memory it is associated with objects and places. The city is the locus of the collective memory. The cemetery is the very embodiment of this notion of collective memory, and Rossi here creates a haunting and enigmatic city of the dead.

The largest of Rossi's projects in terms of scale was the San Cataldo Cemetery, in Modena, Italy, which began in 1971 but is yet to be completed. Rossi referred to it as a "city of the dead".

Model of San Cataldo Cemetery, Modena, Italy, 1971

San Cataldo Cemetery, Modena, Italy, 1984

The Teatro Carlo Felice is the principal opera house of Genoa, Italy, used for performances of opera, ballet, orchestral music, and recitals. It is located on the Piazza De Ferrari.

Rebuilding of the Carlo Felice Theatre, Genoa, Italy, 1991

The hall was altered many times in the years 1859-1934, and remained remarkably unscathed by war until 9 February, 1941 when a shell fired by a British warship hit the roof, leaving a large hole open to the sky and destroying the ceiling of the auditorium which had been a unique example of 19th century rococo extravagance, its main feature being a wide circle of angels, cherubs and other winged creatures in brightly painted high relief. Finally, an air raid in September 1944 caused the destruction of the front of the theatre leaving virtually only the outside walls and the corridors behind the tiers of boxes standing. What had been the most richly beautiful of opera houses had become a skeleton of bare walls and roofless porticos. Reconstruction plans began immediately after the war's close. The first design by Paolo Antonio Chessa (1951) was rejected; the second by Carlo Scarpa was approved in 1977 but brought to a halt by his untimely death. Aldo Rossi ultimately provided today's design, in which portions of the original facade have been recreated but the interior is entirely modern. The hall officially reopened in June 1991, with a main hall holding up to 2,000 seats and a smaller auditorium holding up to 200 seats.

The museum was founded in 1884 as the historical and archaeological museum of the Dutch province of Limburg. The name Bonnefanten Museum is derived from the French 'bons enfants' ('good children'), the popular name of a former convent that housed the museum from 1951 until 1978.

In 1995, the museum moved to its present location, a former industrial site named 'Cramique'. The new building was designed by the Italian architect Aldo Rossi. With its rocket-shaped cupola overlooking the river Maas, it is one of Maastricht's most prominent modern buildings.[1]

Since 1999, themuseum has become exclusively an artmuseum. The historical and archaeological collections were housed elsewhere. The museum is largely funded by the province of Limburg.Bonnefanten Museum

Bonnefanten Museum, Maastrict, Netherlands, 1995

Maastricht, the Netherlands. View of central staircase in the Bonnefantenmuseum designed by Aldo Rossi.

It was built in the mid 90s, following the ideas of critical reconstruction and is instantly recognisable by its multicoloured facades; it seems at first glance to be a series of different buildings on the same block, each a different (mostly primary) colour.

Despite the interesting layout of its internal courtyards, and the inclusion of one pre-existing building, its basically one big speculative development with the potential to remove internal partitions for continuous office space.Quartier Schtzenstrasse, Berlin, Germany, 1998

The splitting of the facades into apparently separate buildings is therefore entirely false, and deliberately underlined by the inclusion of a copy of the Renaissance Palazzo Farnese. This is architectural humour, apparently.

Its admittedly a good antidote to some of the frankly horrible featureless corporate blocks which dominate the area, but the real problem, as ever in architecture, is in the detail.

Its just all too plastic looking, especially the renaissance stone detailing, which, although it is actual stone, looks like plastic panels with visible gaps between; the stonework doesnt meet the floor.

La Conica Espresso Coffee Maker, 1982

Stainless steel kettle Il Conico, 1986

Thank you

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