Oscar Niemeyer the modernist architect who allowed the sensuality of Brazil’s environment to create the “Brazilian Free-Form Modernism," turns 101 today (12.15.08) I have been bewitched by Mr. Niemeyer’s forms since I stumbled upon a book of his early work during my first year of architecture school. I am most intrigued with his early work in the 1940’s and 50’s. The work was lucid, dramatic and well detailed.My Top Ten Favorites
10. The National Congress Complex, Brasilia (1958-60)
09. University of Constantine, Algeria (1969-77)
08. Ministry of Justice, Brasilia (1962-70)
07. Alvorada Palace, Brasilia (1956-58)
06. The interior of the Senate, Brasilia (1958-60)
05. The Copan Building, San Paulo (195157)
04. The bris soleil on the Brazilian Pavilion for New York World’s Fail (1939)
03. The Stair in the Palacio de Itamaraty, Brasilia (1962)
02. Ministry of Education and Health Building, Rio de Janeiro (1936-43)
01. Hospital Sul-America, Rio de Janeiro (1952)
“It is not the right angle that attracts me, not the straight line – hard and inflexible – created by man. What attracts me is the free and sensual curve, the curve that I fined in the mountains of my country, in the sinuous course of its rivers in the body of the beloved woman.” - Oscar Niemeyer
