Oscar Niemeyer: Architecture

“I had some good opportunities. I was lucky to have had the chance to do things differently. Architecture is about surprise.”

Oscar Niemeyer

Quoted in "Architect of Optimism," Angel Gurria-Quintana, Financial Times (2007-04-13).

Chance

“I have always accepted and respected all other schools of architecture, from the chill and elemental structures of Mies van der Rohe to the imagination and delirium of Gaudi. I must design what pleases me in a way that is naturally linked to my roots and the country of my origin.”

Oscar Niemeyer

Quoted in "Gordon Bunshaft and Oscar Niemeyer: Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureates 1988" http://www.pritzkerprize.com/bunnei.htm#...about%20Oscar%20Niemeyer, pritzkerprize.com (1988).

School , Way , Imagination , Nature

“My ambition has always been to reduce a building’s support to a minimum. The more we diminish supporting structures, the more audacious and important the architecture is. That has been my life’s work.”

Oscar Niemeyer

Quoted in "Architect of Optimism," Angel Gurria-Quintana, Financial Times (2007-04-13).

Life , Support

“First were the thick stone walls, the arches, then the domes and vaults — of the architect, searching out for wider spaces.
Now it is concrete-reinforced that gives our imagination flight with its soaring spans and uncommon cantilevers. Concrete, to which architecture is integrated, through which it is able to discard the foregone conclusions of rationalism, with its monotony and repetitious solutions.
A concern for beauty, a zest for fantasy, and an ever-present element of surprise bear witness that today's architecture is not a minor craft bound to straight-edge rules, but an architecture imbued with technology: light, creative and unfettered, seeking out its architectural scene.”

Oscar Niemeyer

Acceptance speech, Pritzker Architecture Prize http://www.pritzkerprize.com/bunnei.htm#Oscar%20Niemeyer's%20Acceptance%20Speech (1988).

Beauty , Imagination , Search , Light

“We hated Bauhaus. It was a bad time in architecture. They just didn’t have any talent. All they had were rules. Even for knives and forks they created rules. Picasso would never have accepted rules. The house is like a machine? No! The mechanical is ugly. The rule is the worst thing. You just want to break it.”

Oscar Niemeyer

Quoted in "Why Oscar Niemeyer is king of curves," Tom Dyckhoff, The Times Online (London, 2007-12-12).

Hate , Time , Housing

“I deliberately disregarded the right angle and rationalist architecture designed with ruler and square to boldly enter the world of curves and straight lines offered by reinforced concrete.… This deliberate protest arose from the environment in which I lived, with its white beaches, its huge mountains, its old baroque churches, and the beautiful suntanned women.”

Oscar Niemeyer

The Curves of Time: The Memoirs of Oscar Niemeyer (2000), p. 62.

Women , World , Beauty , Mountain

“Architecture was my way of expressing my ideals: to be simple, to create a world equal to everyone, to look at people with optimism, that everyone has a gift. I don’t want anything but general happiness. Why is that bad?”

Oscar Niemeyer

Quoted in "Why Oscar Niemeyer is king of curves", Tom Dyckhoff, The Times Online (London, 2007-12-12).

People , World , Way , Optimism

“Here, then, is what I wanted to tell you of my architecture. I created it with courage and idealism, but also with an awareness of the fact that what is important is life, friends and attempting to make this unjust world a better place in which to live.”

Oscar Niemeyer

The Curves of Time: The Memoirs of Oscar Niemeyer (2000), p. 176.

Life , World , Courage