The past XX century has many major events that occurred as a result of changes in the economy, science, politics, technology, ideology, medicine and culture. In this difficult time, many geniuses of art were born and created, who gave the world masterpieces that still amaze and captivate with their beauty. One of these great architects, who saw the last century with his own eyes, is the Brazilian Oscar Niemeyer, who turns 105 this year. Perhaps some skeptics will say that architecture is not art, but only until the moment when they first see his beautiful creations of iron and concrete.

Quote

“I have never been attracted to the right angles, the hard rigid lines that are so typical of all that is created by man. On the contrary, I have always been attracted by intricately curved and sensual lines. After all, it is precisely such lines that remind me of the mountains of my native Brazil, high clouds, free bends of rivers and the body of a beloved woman ... "

Architect

Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida de Niemeyer Soaris Filho was born on December 15, 1907 in Rio de Janeiro, in a wealthy family and was brought up in the house of his mother's parents. The father and mother of Oscar Niemeyer are Portuguese, but the architect names among the distant ancestors of the Germans and an Indian from the Arariboia tribe, who lived many years ago in the Rio de Janeiro region.

Niemeyer attended an elite college where he first became interested in architecture. At twenty-one, Oscar married.

In 1934 he graduated from the National Art School in Rio de Janeiro and a year later began working in the workshop of Lucio Costa.

In 1936, Niemeyer joined a group of Brazilian architects who worked together with Le Corbusier on the design of the premises of the Ministry of Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro. In 1939 he became project manager as Le Corbusier took over as consultant. Later, he began to design various residential buildings and recreational facilities, until, in 1957, he was commissioned to implement the master plan of Lucio Costa for the capital city of Brazil - Brasilia.

Up until 1979, Niemeyer worked on most of the city's public buildings. During this difficult period, due to his undisguised commitment to the ideology of the communists, in 1964 he went into unauthorized exile in France, as right-wing radicals came to power. I stayed there for about 5 years and returned back to my homeland.

Starting in the 1970s, the undisputed talent of the South American architect began to be recognized in many cultural and professional circles around the world, as evidenced by the prizes and awards awarded to Oscar Niemeyer.

In a book of memoirs, he wrote that, according to Brazilian customs, he should have been called Oscar Ribeiro (by his mother's last name) Soaris (father's last name), but his father, who was brought up in his uncle's family, added his surname Niemeyer to his family name - Soaris . And Oscar himself in his mature years began to be called simply Niemeyer.

Each period of Oscar Niemeyer's life corresponds to a certain stage of creativity that influenced the development of the architectural doctrine of this great master.

The first stage (1940-1943) was marked by the design of a number of government buildings. They note the combination of truly Brazilian elements intertwined with universal ones, which, as the master himself notes, creates an inimitable play of straight and curved lines, for example, Gustavu Kapanema's palace (the building of the Ministry of Education and Health). The construction of the palace was initiated by President Getúlio Vargas.

The project was quite audacious for its time. It was one of the first modernist buildings in Latin America used by a government agency. The building itself later had a huge impact on Brazilian aesthetics and modernist architecture in that country.

When finishing, local materials were used (Portuguese blue and white tiles). The internal frame of the building, made of concrete, made it possible to build two wide facades of glass, and centralized sun protection in the form of blinds was installed on the windows.

One of the most significant works of the second stage (1943-1953) is the building of the UN headquarters in New York. At this time, the architect is in search of new artistic possibilities, which leads to a change in style in favor of a certain organic formalism.

Niemeyer also introduces poetic motifs into the architecture of this period, combines architecture with sculpture, buildings with natural landscape, develops his engineering and technical capabilities, studies the possibilities of using new materials (reinforced concrete).

1963 - International Lenin Prize "For the strengthening of peace between peoples."
1970 - Golden medal American Institute of Architects.
1988 - Pritzker Prize.
2007 - Order of Friendship (Russia).
2009 - Medal of the Order of Arts and Letters of Spain.

In the period 1953-1965, Niemeyer actively worked on the architectural appearance of the capital of Brazil, manifesting himself in a new way, using expressionism in construction.

Work in Brasilia - from June 1958 directly on the construction site - associated with numerous difficulties, serious hardships and frequent misunderstandings, was a genuine human, patriotic and creative feat and brought wonderful fruits that went down in the history of world architecture, despite the inevitable shortcomings and contradictions .

The scheme of the master plan, the outlines of which resemble a bird taking off, combines the rigidity of functional zoning and the modernity of solving the transport problem (with separation and interchanges of traffic and underground pedestrian crossings) with classic splendor, rigor and dynamic symmetry of the axial construction.

The residential area is stretched along the highway, curved in accordance with the relief, and perpendicular to it along the crest of the peninsula, a grand staircase of squares gently descends to the reservoir, surrounded by government and important public buildings. The crossroads, the transport hub of which includes a bus station with viewing platforms, is marked by the vertical of the television tower.

The implemented projects of this time were a reflection of an extraterrestrial reality, securing a place in popularity along with the architectural monuments of Brazil, which have a thousand-year history. One of these structures was the Palace of the National Congress, built in 1960. It was intended for meetings of the National Congress of Brazil.

The building itself looks like a parallelepiped, on which there are two hollow hemispheres, and between them - 2 parallel hundred-meter skyscrapers. Directly below the hemisphere turned downwards are the premises of the Federal Senate, under the hemisphere turned upwards, resembling a cup, are the premises of the Chamber of Deputies. All areas of this building are connected to neighboring parts by underground corridors belonging to a huge complex.

Another creation of the Brazilian architect in these years is the Cathedral of the Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary, built in the style of modernism. It was for designing this cathedral that Oscar Niemeyer received the Pritzker Prize in 1988.

The building consists of 16 columns - line structures in the form of a one-sheet hyperboloid, symbolizing hands raised to the sky. The gaps between the columns are covered with stained-glass windows. Due to the peculiar architecture inside, the entire space is filled with light, and in order to achieve a greater effect, the architect conceived a very dark and long corridor in front of the entrance to the main room. But since Oscar Niemeyer is an atheist, the church refused to consecrate the cathedral he designed for a very long time.

Later, during the military dictatorship, Niemeyer moved to Europe, where he began to study the cultural heritage of antiquity, which led him to the next creative stage, characterized by original ideas and extraordinary forms - buildings acquire more and more strict technical tones.

This stage of creativity (1965-1989) is distinguished by the design of buildings of a public nature - for the people (the Copan residential building in Sao Paulo, the building of the Manchete publishing house, the Nacional Hotel, the Saenz Peña metro station and others).

interesting

In the 1970s, Niemeyer was still interested in designing furniture. His upholstered leather armchairs and sofas with springy steel strip legs, usually made in collaboration with his daughter Ana Maria, a decorative artist, were frequently exhibited in Brazil and abroad.

Since the 1990s, the Brazilian master no longer rushes into the maelstrom of new styles, forms, materials, he has been honing his creative style, which consists in combining individual symbolism and the public character of buildings. Oskar Niemeyer mainly designs memorial and cultural buildings.

In 1996, the architect creates the "UFO" museum of contemporary art in Niteroi. The building in the form of a spaceship is located in the city of Niteroi in Brazil, being one of its main attractions. The idea of ​​Oscar Niemeyer can be explained by his own quote: “Once upon a time, a flying saucer flying over the city admired the beauties of these places and decided to stay here forever and, having landed on this place, laid the foundation for the Museum of Modern Art.”

The museum consists of a dome with a diameter of 50 meters, having 3 floors - a snow-white building made of concrete and glass. Oscar Niemeyer, designing this masterpiece, was convinced that functional and elegant architecture is not the lot of multi-million cities, its representatives look great in such quiet, architecturally lonely places, especially if they are closely surrounded by nature.

Another museum named after the author himself, the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, is located in the city of Curitiba, in the state of Parana in Brazil. It was built in 2002 and named the New Museum. With the completion of the renovation and construction, the new annex was renamed in honor of its famous architect, who completed this project at the age of 95. It is also known as the Eye Museum due to the construction of the building. The museum is dedicated to contemporary fine arts, architecture and design.

In 2001, the architect decided to transform the building - he added a structure made of white concrete and mirror glass in the form of a large eye. This specific addition cemented the new name - "Museum of the Eye" or "All-Seeing Eye". The museum immediately became a symbol of the city of Curitiba.

Despite his venerable age, Oscar Niemeyer continues to create, showing the world more and more new buildings. March 26, 2011 the opening of the cultural center in the city of Aviles in Spain. The total area of ​​the center is 40,000 m², it includes an exhibition space (area of ​​4,000 m2), an observation platform, a hall for 1,000 spectators and a multifunctional building with cinema halls, rooms for conferences, rehearsals and seminars.

Oscar Niemeyer is the last living great architect of the 20th century and is still active today designing buildings for Brazil and other countries.

Chapter 3. Brasilia

In the second half of the 50s, the whole way of life and work of Oscar Niemeyer changed dramatically. He recalls: "I started studying Brasilia one fine September morning in 1956, when Juscelino Kubitschek, getting out of his car ... came after me and on the way to the city * outlined the essence of the matter to me ... From that moment I began to live with the thought about Brasilia.

* (Rio de Janeiro.)

Expressed at the end of the XVIII century. fighters for the independence of Brazil from the colonial yoke, the idea of ​​transferring the capital to the interior of the country, confirmed in the election program of J. Kubitschek, president of the republic in 1956-1960, began to be put into practice. Kubitschek invited O. Niemeyer to lead the design of the new capital.

The significance of this work lay not only in its grandiosity (the population of the city was to be 500 thousand people), especially considering the conditions of capitalism. The transfer of the capital was supposed to serve, first of all, the development and economic development of the interior regions of the subcontinent, almost uninhabited until that time. But perhaps even more important for the future of Brazil were the hopes that were pinned on the new capital city by the national-patriotic forces of the country, which united in the 50s and early 60s under the slogans of national development (the nationalist political movement, heterogeneous in its social composition, received the name "desenvolvimentism") * . Remote from the Atlantic coast, which for centuries served as a gateway for the penetration of first colonialists, and after Brazil gained independence - foreign capital that entangled the country with less noticeable, but no less painful fetters of economic and political influence, the new capital was to become a stronghold of the country's true independence.

* (From desenvolvimento (port t.) - development.)

The difficulty and greatness of the task, the immense efforts that had to be made to solve it (they turned out to be immeasurably greater than J. Kubitschek and his associates at first imagined), were supposed, as the initiators of the construction of the new capital utopianly believed, to unite the Brazilian people, split by irreconcilable social contradictions, show the increased economic and creative opportunities of the country, and finally become an example and symbol of renewal, progress and a bright future for Brazil.

O. Niemeyer wrote later: “The most important thing, in my opinion, was to build Brasilia in spite of all obstacles, build it in the desert, quickly, as if by magic, and then feel its breath in this endless sertan *, previously unknown and deserted. It was important to pave roads, build dams, see how new cities spring up on the plateau; to conquer the deserted regions of the country, to give the Brazilian a little optimism, to show him that our land is fertile and that its riches, which our enemies so rudely encroach on, require protection and enthusiasm".

* (Sertao (port.) - wilderness, undeveloped areas of the Brazilian plateau with an arid climate and sparse vegetation.)

The figurative-symbolic task was put forward as one of the main ones. The very name of the capital, proposed by the prominent fighter for independence and the founder of the independent Brazilian state, José Bonifacio de Andrada y Silva, is symbolic. Such a position predetermined the purposefully monumental, highly emotional and symbolic image of the architecture of the new city, and it was quite natural to invite the largest national architect to the role of its creator. J. Kubitschek chose Oscar Niemeyer, whom he knew from Pampulha, from his work in Belo Horizonte and Diamantina. And the architect himself saw in the design of Brasilia the continuation of a long-standing creative collaboration with a prominent statesman. On the other hand, the figurative-symbolic, patriotic task could not but captivate the architect, who always strived for expressiveness, novelty and originality of the architectural image.

The state-private company "Novakap", created for the construction of a new capital, organized a large design department in its structure, Niemeyer was appointed creative head of which. Having accepted the invitation, Niemeyer completely refused to fulfill private orders (on which his material well-being mainly depended) and for several years focused exclusively on developing projects for buildings for various purposes for Brasilia and participating in their implementation in kind.

Work in Brasilia - from June 1958 directly on the construction site - associated with numerous difficulties, serious hardships and frequent misunderstandings, was a genuine human, patriotic and creative feat and brought excellent results, forever inscribed in the history of world architecture, despite the inevitable shortcomings and contradictions.

Niemeyer was asked to develop the layout of the new city, but he, having shown true creative dedication, refused this offer * , although he was worried about whether he could find contact with city planners, and took over only the design of government and the first residential buildings. With the assistance of the Institute (Union) of Brazilian Architects, he took part in the organization of an open competition for the master plan, in which almost all major Brazilian architects took part ** . O. Niemeyer was included in the international jury of the competition and, most importantly, almost immediately began to develop the first projects.

* (Subsequently, O. Niemeyer always indicated that he was not the "author" or "creator" of Brasilia. In 1965, when he saw a poster for an exhibition of his work at the Louvre Museum of Decorative Arts, he wrote on a photograph of Place des Three Powers: "It is wrong to call me the architect of Brasilia, without saying that Lucio Costa is the author of the master plan ... I also did not build Brasilia The city was built thanks to the enthusiasm of Juscelin Kubitschek, the perseverance of Israel Pinheiro (at that time the head of Novakap - V. X.) and thousands of nameless workers who made much greater sacrifices than all of us put together ".)

** (The most prominent theorist of the modern movement in architecture, a fighter for its inter-national character, 3. Gidion subsequently expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that "the competition for an urban complex of such size and importance was not open to the most experienced planners from all countries" (preface to the book. The Work of Affonso Eduardo Reidy, New-York, 1960, p. 10), but in this case, as J. Kubicek later wrote, for the initiators of the construction, reliance on national creative forces was programmatic (Staubly W., Brasilia, London, 1966 , p. 7).)

Together with the construction managers, it was decided not to erect temporary buildings. The exception was the wooden residence of the president of the republic, since J. Kubitschek sought from the very beginning to directly participate in solving all issues, and, of course, shacks for thousands of builders of the "city of the 21st century". Niemeyer conceived "... to use all modern technology so that in the future ..." the first "... buildings could become the starting point for the construction of other structures provided for construction ... I tried to find for everyone specific case his own special solution, avoiding monotony and repetition of the old ... ".

The ideological tasks of building a new capital, experienced and refracted in the creative mind of the author of its main structures, gave rise to architecture that was exceptionally expressive and innovative for that time, although not free from contradictions. Its novelty is very broad. This is undoubtedly a new stage in the development of Brazilian modern architecture, marked primarily by features of increased monumentality with a subtle appeal to architectural classics, integrity, geometricity and, at the same time, sculpture. But the image of the new capital is also marked by new features of originality, and the symbolic-propaganda task caused a peculiar form of originality - not traditionalist, but emphatically innovative. These features of the architecture of Brasilia did not appear suddenly, as an immediate reaction of the architect to an honorable, difficult and responsible order. They have been developing since the beginning of the 50s, and the assertion of the need for national identity as a creative concept appears in his articles in the mid-50s. However, these features acquire maturity and completeness in the projects for Brasilia.

Palace of the National Congress in Brasilia. 1960 Facade from the Three Powers Square

Already during the competition for the general plan, O. Niemeyer developed projects for the temporary residence of the president, his permanent palace and hotel for official guests of the capital on sites that left complete freedom to the participants in the competition for the general plan of the city. The results of the competition summed up in June 1957 - in his articles O. Niemeyer did not hide serious disputes in the jury (see, for example,) - gave the chief architect of Brasilia a new creative impetus. "With the choice of the Luciu Costa project, everything fell into place. It was not only about a wonderful project, but also about a sincere and sensitive person, about my great friend, with whom we always had complete mutual understanding." In the joint work of Costa and Niemeyer, which began 25 years before the start of the construction of Brasilia, a new, perhaps the most important stage for both, began.

Niemeyer considered the merits of L. Costa's project to be not only a humanistic social concept that embodies the symbolic equality of the future inhabitants of the city, but also such features of the future city as monumentality, an emphasis on a plastic solution, and the skillful use of perspective. The general plan, on the one hand, set not only the layout scheme, but also the "modern" character of the architecture of the new capital close to Niemeyer, on the other hand, it provided designers with greater freedom in choosing volumetric and figurative solutions.

The scheme of the master plan, the outlines of which resemble a bird taking off, combines the rigidity of functional zoning and the modernity of solving the transport problem (with separation and interchanges of traffic and underground pedestrian crossings) with classic splendor, rigor and dynamic symmetry of the axial construction. The residential area is stretched along the highway, curved in accordance with the relief, and perpendicular to it along the crest of the peninsula, a grand staircase of squares gently descends to the reservoir, surrounded by government and important public buildings. The crossroads, the transport hub of which includes a bus station with viewing platforms, is marked by the vertical of the television tower.

The expanses of squares and esplanades, especially when considering the relatively small dimensions of free-standing public buildings, seem exaggerated, and sometimes incommensurable with a person, which is noted by almost all researchers and critics of Brasilia. However, this urban planning solution provided an opportunity for the further development of the ensemble, which was soon required, the construction of new complexes and extensions of buildings to existing buildings.

Already in August 1958 - just a year after the start of construction, the presidential residence, symbolically called the Palace of Dawn (Alvorada), the "Palace Hotel" for official guests and a block of semi-detached one-story individual houses for builders with shaded courtyards were completed. Their structure and appearance really, as it were, gave the architecture of Brasilia geometrism and a monumental and refined character.

The palace is located near the complex of government buildings in a green area on the banks of the reservoir. It is located on a spacious platform with rectangles of greenery and water. The main entrance facing the city is flanked by an obelisk and a sculptural group.

The length and austerity, splendor and lightness of a low rectangular volume, a clear rhythm, a finely found scale provide an effective perception of the building both near and from distant points of view, combining the impression of the monumentality of an official residence with the openness and comfort of an individual dwelling. During the design period, O. Niemeyer wrote: “We sought to be guided by the principles of simplicity and purity, which in the past distinguished outstanding works of architecture. To this end, we avoided pretentious solutions overloaded with forms and structural elements(canopies, balconies, sun protection devices, color, material, etc.), adopting a solution that is compact and simple, where beauty is the result of proportionality and the design itself. To this end, we paid great attention to the columns, carefully designing their arrangement, shape and proportions in accordance with the technical possibilities and the plastic effect that we sought to achieve.

Niemeyer really managed to achieve conciseness and integrity of the composition, a simple and harmonious combination of the contrasting volumes of his own palace, chapel and office buildings, to find an unusual and exceptionally elegant form of the supports of this modern periptera, which create the impression of weightlessness, but most importantly, novelty and originality. The search for an image of the palace is close to neoclassicism, which became widespread in the architecture of the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, but here the attitude to the ancient prototype is much subtler and fresher, and the methods of conscious atectonicity (a triple increase in the span over the main entrance along with a cladding with white marble slabs) emphasize the decorative effect of the reception, delimit it, freeing it from academic clichés.

The exaggerated lightness of the palace, as well as other government buildings in Brasilia, creates a new form of monumentality, "in essence, anti-monumentality", as the American researcher N. Ivenson writes, adding that Niemeyer's own comments imply that "the government ensemble conveys an atmosphere of unreality, like a dream " * . It seems that this characteristic really corresponds to the somewhat utopian or fantastic design of the architect.

* (Evenson N. Two Brasilian Capitals, New Haven and London, 1973, p. 204.)

In the interiors of the palace, adjacent front rooms are connected by wide openings, animated by ramps, open staircases, internal balconies, enriched with spectacular combinations of materials: concrete, glass, marble, metal, wood, red carpets, sculpture and painting. The impression of freedom and flow of space, which is so important for the modernly interpreted enfilade of halls, is enhanced by what is new for modern architecture and also violates the "veracity" of perception of the spatial structure by the wide use of mirror surfaces.

In contrast to the clarity and regularity of the parallelepiped of the palace, the shell-like palace chapel is emphatically plastic. The surface of its concrete walls, also lined with white marble, seems to retain traces of the sculptor's fingers. The dynamics of the spiral wall and the silhouette enrich the composition of the complex, echoing the shape of the palace's pillars. The interior of the chapel with wooden paneling of the walls creates a feeling of calm and isolation, conducive to reflection, self-deepening. The altar is illuminated through a stained-glass window.

The terracotta painted Madonna of the 18th century demonstrates a symbolic connection with the Brazilian cultural tradition. in the interior of the chapel and antique wooden chairs in the reception hall, programmatically contrasting with armchairs made of metal tubes in the style of Mies. The daughter of the architect Ana Maria Niemeyer Atademu took part in the development of interiors and furnishing of the Dawn Palace.

During 1958 - 1960, despite the difficulties, all the main objects of the government center of Brasilia were built. Lines (initially five and six buildings) of ministries stretched out on both sides of the esplanade. According to Niemeyer's sketches, they were supposed to be raised on plastic pylons expanding upwards and connected by passages along the second floor, which would ensure flexible use of the premises. However, in the implemented version, these are free-standing ten-story parallelepipeds with facades glazed to ground level and deaf light ends, which, together with increased monumentality, made them dry, aggravated by repeated repetition. At the same time, uniformity provided a contrasting background for the plastic buildings of the main government offices on the final composition of the main axis of the city of the Three Powers Square.

Palace of the Supreme Court in Brasilia, 1960. General view (in the foreground, the sculptural group "Warriors" by B. Giorgi)

At the end of the 70s, the chains of buildings of the ministries were continued towards the center with completely identical buildings, and behind their front, on both sides of the esplanade, five-story elongated additional buildings were built parallel to them, connected in pairs with each other and with the original buildings by overhead passages. Their facades are different from the previous ministries. Instead of almost undivided glass planes, they are divided into square cells with plastic concrete frames. The placement of extensions lower in the relief also emphasizes their subordinate purpose.

As L. Costa planned, the tops of the triangle of the square secured the buildings of the National Congress, the government and the Supreme Court. But, in comparison with the city planner's sketches, Niemeyer changed the location and volumetric structure of the semantically defining and dominant congress building in the composition. At Costa, it was located between two parallel roads leading to the square, but was shifted to one side, opening up a view and a path to the most important square government center. Niemeyer, on the other hand, placed the low, elongated volume of the building of the meeting rooms of the Houses of Congress across the main axis, as if plunging it between the embankments of roads leading from the esplanade to the square, which cut the space, gave both the triangular square and the esplanade completeness. At the same time, a spacious roof-terrace, accessed by a ramp from the esplanade, connects the space of the squares without interfering with their functional and visual connection.

The meeting rooms and numerous ancillary rooms were connected into a single volume of elongated configuration. Its three floors are covered with a huge slab, thrown from one embankment to another and, as it were, pulling bridges at the corners of the road slab before entering the square.

“The intention to unite both houses of Congress in a single building,” the author wrote, “is caused by the desire to find the most rational and economical solution ... to the problem, and it in no way prevents the chambers from maintaining the necessary isolation. At the same time, this decision allows you to create a more perfect and a wide system of common auxiliary services (garage, restaurant, library, etc.). On the other hand, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate located in a single block will constitute an architectural complex, which, as it should be, will take a leading place among other buildings of the city ".

At the same time, the unification of the premises was not an end in itself for the architect. The composition was developed taking into account the location of the building, the terrain, and possible points of view. “If I approached the project strictly academically or listened to all kinds of criticism,” O. Niemeyer recalled, “then ... it would be just a tall building that closes the perspective that opens today into the depths of the space between the domes ... This perspective is plastically unites all the elements and makes the overall look of the ensemble richer and more diverse.

The layout of a huge (80X200 m in plan) block of conference rooms - the "foundation" of the building-complex was solved simply and logically, with a clear separation of the paths of movement of deputies, guests, journalists and attendants. The huge building is easy to navigate. A wide ramp, "branching" from rising to the roof-terrace, leads from the level of the esplanade to a spacious gallery, where the anterooms of the chambers and the main vestibule open, dividing the main floor into two unequal zones of the chambers. Outlined by curvilinear walls, the meeting rooms "float" in a single room of corridors connected to the lobby by wide open staircases. Glass partitions separate the cafe premises, the foyer for deputies and the press. Free-standing walls divide the corridors and hide the entrances to service and auxiliary premises. The unification and flow of spaces gave an obvious functional and emotional effect here.

The architectural expressiveness of the congress building is given by the identification of the main functional elements in the composition. “In this case,” O. Niemeyer clarified, “two halls of plenary sessions are such elements ... Therefore, our plastic task was to highlight these halls as much as possible. We placed them on a monumental terrace (covering the corridors and auxiliary rooms of the chambers - V.X.), where their forms stand out as genuine symbols of the legislature" .

Niemeyer again compared two volumes contrasting in outline and tectonics. Even in the project of the exhibition complex in Sao Paulo, the sloping dome of the pavilion of arts and the inverted pyramid of the audience were arranged, connected by a canopy-propylaea. However, the auditorium was not built, and the architect's plan did not materialize. In the building of the National Congress, the composition is extremely sculptural and geometrized, almost mock-up: only the dome above the Senate meeting room and a grandiose, at first glance, atectonic bowl rise above the plane of the slab, on the inner surface of which there is a logical amphitheater of seats for visitors to the meetings of the Chamber of Deputies (connected by a corridor in the thickness slabs with similar spectator seats under the dome of the Senate). The plastic interaction of these contrasting volumes makes an exceptionally strong impression.

The architect's striving for sculptural and geometric purity of self-valuable form in places came into conflict with functional expediency here. The terrace and the ramps leading to it from the side of the esplanade and the square (just like the ramps in the interiors of the palaces of Brasilia) were left without fences - parapets or railings. As N. Ivenson notes, not without malice, "... although Niemeyer preferred architectural control as a measure to curb the intemperance of other architects working for Brasilia, he rewarded himself with complete creative freedom in those structures that he himself designed" *.

* (Evenson N., Op. cit., p. 188.)

The transition connects the block of halls with the double 27-storey building of the Secretariat of the Congress - the vertical dominant of the government center and the tallest building in the city. This superiority in height was supposed to demonstrate the dominant role of the legislature (a symbol of "democracy"). The building is displaced from the axis of symmetry of the city, indicating the continuation of the ensemble beyond the limits of the congress complex. Setting the high-rise volume perpendicular to the block of chambers, that is, parallel to the main planning axis of the center, corresponds to L. Costa's plan and does not interfere with the perception of the space of the Three Powers Square from the esplanade. Such a technique introduces the complex of congress buildings into the space of the square. The three-dimensional opposition is supplemented by the tectonic one: if the block of halls topped with a massive slab is raised above ground level on thin racks, the dull light ends and glass edges of the high-rise building grow directly from the water of the rectangular pool.

In the 1970s, the development of the government apparatus necessitated the expansion of the Congress building. Underpasses connected the body of chambers with low service buildings on the outside of the roads leading from the esplanade to the Place of the Three Powers. Other buildings are then attached to them, and the whole complex is flanked by extended plates of increased number of storeys, where the new secretariat premises are located.

The composition of the building-ensemble of the National Congress combines symmetry with asymmetry, wholeness with dissection, harmonious calmness with dynamism. The horizontal of the terrace slab, visually reinforced by the flattened volumes of the dome and bowl, contrasts with the double and therefore even stronger vertical of the secretariat's skyscrapers, whose planes set off the plasticity of spherical volumes. The formal tectonic contrast of the dome and bowl is enhanced by the noticeable difference in their masses, which is simultaneously balanced by the visual shift of the skyscrapers from the axis of symmetry. And this shift itself, together with the removal of the high-rise volume into the space of the square, the asymmetric arrangement of the pool and the Royal Palms Forum, gives the composition a new movement. Volumetric contrast is complemented by a juxtaposition of lightness and massiveness, transparent and deaf surfaces, glass and stone, sky and tiling, water and greenery, sculptures and flags.

The solidity (with all the diversity) of the congress building that dominates the space of the congress building is contrasted with the elegance and transparency of two large buildings erected at the base of the triangle symmetrically relative to the main axis of the center of the two large buildings: the government (more precisely, according to the Brazilian constitution, the office of the president of the republic) - the Planalto Palace, i.e. plateau (Brazilian Plateau, where the new capital is located) and the Supreme Court (Palace of Justice). Their flattened, air-filled volumes are subject to the general horizontal principle of building up the area. Both buildings are elevated above ground level, and wide ramps lead to their main entrances (in the Palace of the Supreme Court - for the entire width of the facade).

In search of the stylistic unity of the main buildings of the capital, Niemeyer, as in the Palace of the Dawn, chooses arrow-shaped columns that support a strong roof extension as the main motive for solving the facades of the palaces. But in the palaces on the Square of the Three Powers they are placed across the facades (in the Planaltu Palace, moreover, again with an increase in the span between the columns on the main facade), than the author once again demonstrated the decorative, sculptural nature of their use.

"... The separation of the external columns from the volume of the building," says Niemeyer, "allows visitors to come close to them, walk around them, fully feel their volume and the space that separates them from the building itself ... This gave the columns of the buildings surrounding the Three Square Authorities ... a wonderful variety ". To this end, the arrow-shaped columns of the Planalto Palace form the facade facing the square, while in the Palace of Justice they form the side facades. Their pattern is also different - energetic, with a strong separation of the floor of the main floor from the ground in the Planalto Palace; smooth, drawn, more refined in the Palace of Justice.

In front of the main facade of the Planaltu Palace, a tribune connected to it by a bridge was built in the form of a high oval column in plan. On April 21, 1960, Brazilian President Juscelino Kubicek de Oliveira, the initiator and active participant in the construction of the new capital, announced its opening. At the entrance to the Palace of Justice there is a classic statue of Themis (sculptor A. Seschiati).

In the center of the square there is a huge sculptural group "Warriors" * by B. Giorgi. Its severity, somewhat conventional character, clear rhythm and geometrized silhouette, and especially the outlines of the upper part, reminiscent of arrow-shaped columns of palaces, echo the architecture, and the color and texture of the statues contrast with the smooth white marble facades of the buildings.

* (The Soviet researcher of Brazilian sculpture, art critic T. I. Krauts calls the group "Kandango" (settlers - port.), Seeing it as a symbol of the masses of half-literate and half-starved builders who came from all over the country to build the city of the future. Latin America, 1979, no. 5, p. 161, 163.)

Nearby, closer to the building of the National Congress, is the Brasilia Museum, which was conceived by the architect as a monument to the enthusiasm and heroism of the builders of the city in sertana. Modern architecture knows many examples of combining a museum and a monument, but such a combination is rarely successful, because it already carries a contradiction in the very concept: the monument is fundamentally sculptural, designed for viewing from the outside and does not imply internal space, which in turn is a condition for the existence and functioning of the museum. Niemeyer did not escape this inconsistency.

The exposition hall, which is designed in the form of a huge double beam, asymmetrically, as if not yet completely laid on a cubic support, recreates the pathos of creation. In the appearance of the building, almost nothing indicates the presence of internal space, even the stairs leading to the exhibition hall are hidden in a massive cube, to which the mask of J. Kubitschek is attached. The memorial character of the building is strengthened by solemn inscriptions on the facades and on the inner walls of the hall, illuminated through a glazed strip that cuts the "beam" along.

Somewhat later, completing the ensemble of the Three Powers Square, an obelisk-dovecote was erected in the form of a paired or cut pillar, which introduced into the composition of the square not only a new dynamic vertical accent, but also real movement and sound - the noise of a mass of doves, enlivening the monumental solemnity of the ensemble. In the early 70s, a huge openwork flagpole was installed on the square.

The theme of the pairing of compositional elements, sometimes similar, sometimes contrasting in form, volume and functionality, is consistently and actively carried out throughout the ensemble of the government center of Brasilia. The scale of paired elements varies from an architectural detail to a complex of buildings. The dovecote, the "beam"-hall of the museum, the skyscraper of the secretariat of the congress are bifurcated; the sculptural groups "Bathers" in front of the Palace of Dawn and "Warriors" on the Square of the Three Powers consist of two figures; in addition to the paired buildings of the secretariat, the image of the congress building is created by the two meeting rooms above the roof-terrace, two palaces form the vertices of the triangle of the main square at its base, two chains of buildings of ministries flank the esplanade, etc. *

* (The Soviet researcher L. I. Lopovok drew attention to pairing as a characteristic feature of the town-planning solution of Brasilia and the architectural ensemble in general (see Architecture of the USSR, 1977, No. 5).)

Perhaps the idea of ​​pairing was suggested to the architect by the very structure of L. Costa's master plan, which is symmetrical with respect to the main axis. However, in Niemeyer, the symmetry of the paired elements, as a rule, is not static, as in the city as a whole, but openly unbalanced, extremely dynamic. It is based either on the nuances of asymmetry, like the appearance of the palaces of Planalto and Justice (and the later palaces of the ministries of foreign affairs and justice), or, more often, on the contrasting opposition of elements of the pair, like the dome and cup that crown the meeting rooms of the chambers of the National Congress.

It is possible that the symbolic role of pairing and, accordingly, the symmetry of the master plan of Brasilia was inspired by the structure of settlements of the Indian tribes of Brazil studied by that time (by the French ethnographer C. Levi-Strauss and other researchers) or deliberately reproduces it, reflecting the desire to demonstrate the continuity of Brazilian culture, while at the same time programmatically differing from it in its openness to further growth and development.

A sharp contrast determined the compositional comparison of the huge volumes of the state theater and the cathedral on the sides of the esplanade, as if marking the transition from the government complex to community center city, which is arranged around a transport hub with a bus station at the intersection of the main transport axes.

The theater building is designed to host opera and ballet performances, operetta performances and concerts of symphonic and chamber music. Two halls, a large one for 2000 seats and a small one for 500 seats, are combined into a single volume with common utility rooms and a stage box and have entrances from opposite end facades. The partition between the stages can be removed in the case of performances or concerts that allow a two-way or all-round view. It is possible that Niemeyer's idea, as well as in the work on the project of the National Stadium, was influenced by the competition project of the Palace of Soviets in Moscow by Le Corbusier, but the solution found by the Brazilian master turned out to be significantly different: instead of a divided one, an absolutely solid and laconic volume arose. The plan of the building has a trapezoidal contour due to the different sizes of the auditoriums, and the amphitheaters and the stage are buried in the ground, which made it possible to "flatten" the huge building.

Palace of the Arches (Itamaraty) - Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1966 Fragment of the facade, sculpture "Meteor" by B. Giorgi

During the design period of the theater, O. Niemeyer wrote that "... an original architectural form was created, like a shell that encloses the entire building" . Indeed, the truncated pyramid of enclosing structures is, as it were, put on top of the volumes of various premises. The end facades are dissected by inclined ribs-pylons, which form a kind of porticos in the lower part, while the trapezoidal side faces have almost no openings. Contrary to the canons of functionalism, they are completely covered with geometric relief according to the sketch of the artist A. Bulkan.

If the theater building is emphasized massively, then the cathedral, located on the opposite side of the esplanade closer to the buildings of the ministries, is completely transparent. Its reinforced concrete frame was completed by the time the capital was moved, and for almost 10 years, like the skeleton of a fossil giant or an ancient ruin, it attracted every visitor. The decoration and glazing of the cathedral were completed only by 1970. And now the memorable, unusual image of the cathedral is created by its constructive basis.

The cathedral is a round conoidal volume covered with a flat dome crowned with a cross. For O. Niemeyer, it was very important "...to find a compact solution that always maintains the purity of the image, regardless of the angle of view. We resorted to a round shape, which gives the cathedral this feature" . The dome is supported by lanceolate pylons bent inward and again diverging in the upper part, barely touching the ground and rushing towards the sky like flames. The space between the pylons is filled with tinted heat-shielding glass in thin metal bindings.

The floor of the prayer hall is buried several meters below the ground, which made it possible not only to solve functional problems in an interesting way by organizing the altar on a stepped podium and the chapels in a circle, but also to achieve an unusually strong emotional effect. The entrance to the cathedral is provided through a ramp from the surface of the earth, passing through a darkened underground corridor. When the worshiper enters the round hall, a cascade of light literally falls on him from above through the glass sloping walls. The approach to the cathedral is flanked by monumental statues of the evangelists (sculptor A. Seschiati), apparently echoing the famous baroque ensemble in Congonhas (1757 - 1820), where the great sculptor and mulatto architect Aleijadinho sculpted 12 biblical statues in front of the pilgrimage church of Bon Jesus di Matusinhos prophets. And in the interior, under the dome, sculptures of three flying angels (works by A. Seschiati) are suspended, introducing a traditional, somewhat classic motif into the ultra-modern composition of the interior.

The ensemble of the cathedral is complemented by a baptistery, also underground, with a flat spheroidal covering rising above the ground and a free-standing cross, reminiscent, despite its stingy rectilinear outlines, of the composition of provincial Brazilian temples of the colonial period.

The author of the designs of all the main buildings of Brasilia was an outstanding engineer (and also a poet, historian and critic of architecture, journalist, graphic artist) Joaquín Cardoso, with whom Niemeyer had a long-term creative friendship, which began with joint work on the buildings of Pampulha.

Probably, O. Niemeyer always needed a designer of just such a warehouse. It is no coincidence that he wrote: “I mentally go over in my memory all the work that we carried out together, and I don’t remember a single case when he objected to what was envisaged in the project. Not once did he show excessive caution, demanding changes for economic reasons or fearing for the design.His work has always been distinguished by an accurate understanding of the task and optimism, he sought to find for each plan correct solution, one that, in the smallest detail, must preserve the architectural design, ignoring the difficulties that may arise, being sure, like me, that architecture, in order to become a work of art, must first of all be beautiful and creative ".

On a larger scale than the comparison of individual details or buildings, the technique of contrast determined the relationship between the figurative-formal solution of the public and government center and the residential area.

As L. Costa intended, residential development was given background, although not secondary importance. O. Niemeyer (together with E. Ushoa) designed the first residential quarters ("superquadras") of the city.

Speaking "in favor of almost unlimited plastic freedom," Niemeyer made a reservation, referring precisely to the experience of managing the design of Brasilia: "In densely populated areas, on the contrary, I advocate the preservation of the unity and harmony of the architectural ensemble ... adhered to certain norms for the ratio of built-up areas, free spaces, the height of houses and materials for their external design, in order to prevent disharmony and confusion during the growth of the city, as happens with many modern cities. And indeed, with sufficient diversity, the volume-spatial solution of the first quarters gives the impression of regularity, integrity and tranquility *. All residential buildings have the same height (six residential floors above the open, walk-through first). The length of the bodies is the same, only some of them are interlocked in pairs along or in parallel. Thus, on a new, larger scale, Niemeyer developed the compositional techniques of residential development, laid down in the process of working on the village in São José dos Campos.

* (Publishing projects and photos, O. Niemeyer clarified: the urban planning solution of L. Costa, the architecture of O. Niemeyer and E. Ushoa.)

The types of apartments in the houses are different, and it is typical for the real conditions of Brazilian construction that each house is intended for occupancy by families of approximately the same size. social status. Gallery-type houses, the planes of their facades, enlivened only by sun-protection devices, are dissected by the blank volumes of stair-lift towers, which bring a clear rhythm to the building.

In general, the appearance of multi-storey residential buildings is drier than in the works of the early 50s. In particular, plastically developed fork-shaped supports are replaced by flat trapezoidal pylons. And the point, apparently, is not only on a smaller scale, but in the consistent implementation of the principle: in complex development (and not in single, sometimes, as it were, giant houses-complexes located outside the environment), plastic and coloristic expressiveness is programmatically concentrated in the image of public buildings or in small forms of landscaping.

"Palace Hotel" in Brasilia, 1958 General view

If buildings of a more utilitarian purpose - rows of shops, banks, household enterprises also have a dryish ordinary appearance, enlivened only by signboards, shop windows, advertising, then small volumes are emphasized vividly elementary school, a cinema, the cylindrical hall of which contrasts with the parallelepipeds of residential buildings not only with plasticity, but also with rich color, and especially with an elegant small church. Its image is created by a reinforced concrete roof suspended from three powerful pylons, symbolizing the simplicity of the churches of the first Christians and at the same time, perhaps, deliberately perpetuating the image of an awning, under whose cover the construction site of the future capital was consecrated in early 1957. The walls of the church are faced on the outside with "azulejus" tiles (according to the sketches of A. Vulcan), which Niemeyer again found wide use in the buildings of Brasilia, which is undoubtedly symbolic. Light enters the interior of the church through a colored stained-glass window, and the walls are decorated with a light painting by Alfred Volpi.

"Palace Hotel" in Brasilia, 1958. Living room interior

"Palace Hotel" in Brasilia, 1958. Drawing by O. Niemeyer

Stylization and tactful depiction are also present in other places of worship by O. Niemeyer. In the late 70s, he built a closed school in Brasilia - the Don Bosco College, the entire facade of which is formed by lancet arches, introducing into the complex an element of resemblance to a Gothic temple.

On the whole, the solutions of the majority of public buildings designed by Niemeyer outside the government center are more intimate than the buildings of state institutions, modest, close to a person on a large scale, even when they have grandiose physical dimensions.

In the central part of the city, O. Niemeyer built big number public buildings of the most varied size and purpose, including the multi-storey hotel "Nacional", the district hospital - both buildings again with sun-protection swivel ribs on the longitudinal facades. Under the direction and, possibly, according to the sketch of Niemeyer, his employee G. Campelo built the municipal building of Brasilia - the Palace of Buriti *. In the banking sector of the capital, Niemeyer designed a high-rise building of the National Metallurgical Company with an original hanging structure, which was also supposed to have a symbolic name - the Palace of Development.

* (The name comes, apparently, from an endemic Brazilian species of palms.)

In 1978, the complex of buildings of the Brazilian Television (Telebras) was completed, as if connecting the form-creating searches of the 50s and 70s - two rectangular buildings raised on pillars with blind oval stair-lift towers adjacent to the ends, and vertical swivel sun protection strips on the entire plane of the facades facing northwest. Opposite facades have ordinary rectangular windows, and between the buildings on a common stylobate there is a blank volume of the data processing center in the form of a truncated pyramid, and on one side of the complex there is also a blind parallelepiped of the museum. The expressiveness of the ensemble is enhanced by the contrasting color scheme: light raw concrete, orange blinds, dark blue panels with windows, purple edges of the pyramid and the parallelepiped.

Several graceful plastic structures with facades formed by sun-protection grilles, including a yacht club and a tennis complex, were built by O. Niemeyer in a landscaped recreation area on the banks of the reservoir.

His idea of ​​a city stadium remains unfulfilled. The stadium was designed in two versions, both of which provided for the partial overlap of the stands and the field. To this end, in one of the options, a tribune, slightly curved in plan, was conceived only on one side of the sports core, and on the opposite side a huge stage should have been located, which made it possible to use the arena "for large musical and theatrical performances, as well as for civil, youth or Olympic parades. The tribune, the football field and the stage were to be covered by a folded vault with a sectoral plan.

Another option provided for the usual arrangement of the stands, covered with an annular visor, to which a light-transmitting light covering was suspended above the football field.

Niemeyer worked for a long time on the projects of the buildings of the University of Brasilia, where the architect was appointed dean of the Faculty of Architecture he created *. Immediately after the completion of the main buildings of the city, a small pavilion of the university's design center (Seplan) was built with a flat roof on simple panel-like supports. In the interior, Niemeyer placed on the walls huge photos from his sketches of the palaces of Brasilia and a Picasso dove with the word "Peace" in different languages, chairs of a modern design and boxes with greenery.

* (He was forced to leave this position after the reactionary military coup in April 1964.)

One of the first problems was the creation of a project for the entrance area of ​​the university. Like all ensembles of Brasilia, it was supposed to consist of separate buildings connected only by composition. However, in an effort to "... avoid that the buildings, by their proportions, give the square an unnecessarily monumental appearance", the authors "reduced the heights, volumes and free spaces, trying to preserve the modest university character" . For the same purpose, it was planned to cover the area with a green lawn.

The square was designed to house the rector's office, a library, a museum of the history of civilization and a gigantic main auditorium intended not only for university events, but also for international conferences. Emphasizing the "inviting" character of the square, all the buildings were raised above the ground on wide-spaced powerful pyramidal supports. The authors were not stopped by the need to use massive large-span structures, which, it seems, could not but give the structures a monumentality so undesirable for Niemeyer. Perhaps, in the use of massive structures in the work of O. Niemeyer, the influence of neo-brutalism, which became widespread in those years, was manifested, including in Brazil.

The new yacht club in Pampulha, completed in 1961, also has this character (almost the only one, except for the project of an extension to the building of the Ministry of Culture - the former Ministry of Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro, Niemeyer's work of these years outside Brasilia).

The enlarged large-scale solution of the yacht club, deliberately opposed to the elegance and lightness of the yacht club of 1942, responds to the change in the urban situation in Pampulha, which in 20 years has turned into a built-up recreation area of ​​a huge city, serving the masses of people. On the site allotted for construction, there are various buildings, among which the main thing is the club itself with halls, a library, living rooms and a restaurant. The main compositional theme turned out to be a ribbed long-span pavement, indented in terms of shape, based on pyramidal pylons, the cantilever beams of which hang over gardens, pools, and recreation areas. The compositional theme of the monumental flat bottom roofing with curved ribs of the beams projected upward also determines the image of the yacht club in Brasilia.

The surface of the pylons and beams is deliberately roughened, and traces of formwork are preserved on it. Their power is set off by the subtlety and clarity of glass walls with metal bindings. The new yacht club in Pampulha was perhaps the first example of neo-brutalism in Brazil, which spread in the 50s and 60s in the architecture of capitalist countries, but its forms are organic in the dynamics of the development of the master’s work with his constant attention to the plasticity of reinforced concrete structures.

O. Niemeyer designed several more buildings for the Brasilia University complex. The largest of them is the Faculty of Natural Sciences in the form of a 600-meter arc of two parallel two-story prefabricated buildings: laboratory and educational, the layout of which can be changed in accordance with changing needs. The silhouette of the extended body should be enriched in the future with a variety of forms of coatings from new laboratories. The lightness and plasticity of the coating, as the architect hoped, "... will become the main feature of it (of the Faculty of Natural Sciences.- V.X.), an architecture as unpredictable and dynamic as science itself."

The image of the building of the faculty of theology, also mostly prefabricated, was conceived in a completely different way. It is designed in the form of a main flat roof resting on prefabricated columns along the perimeter of the structure, and a "shelf" of classrooms inserted into it, as it were, the floor slabs of which are cut into the external walls, which are curved in plan. Their plasticity, complemented by the alternation of concrete and brick, should create unusual light and shade effects. Curvilinearity is concentrated in the cathedral, where, in addition to the plasticity of forms, "...hidden lighting creates an atmosphere of contemplation and mystery" .

In Brasilia, in the period after the completion of the main government buildings, O. Niemeyer was most worried about the problem of housing for new settlers, especially for the poorest. He wrote: "The problem of housing construction in Brasilia is extremely acute. It is not only about providing housing for those who do not have it and huddle in numerous barracks that disfigure the city. The issue is much broader. It is necessary to provide housing for those who will live in Brasilia tomorrow."

Correspondent office of the magazine "Manshete" in Brasilia, 1980

And Niemeyer was looking for a solution to the problem along the lines of industrialization. He developed two types of prefabricated housing units. One of them is a seven-story building with an internal frame and panel walls. The elevator was supposed to lift the tenants to the fifth floor with public spaces. External stairs in duplex sections made it possible to limit the ascent or descent to the apartments to no more than two floors.

The most interesting is another type of houses - a practically voluminous block apartment of complete factory readiness, from which it was supposed to assemble two-, three- and four-story houses of various lengths and configurations in accordance with the specific conditions of the site. The idea of ​​connecting them in a checkerboard (along the facade) order or in pairs is attractive, forming a shaded green space on each floor of each apartment - a kind of terrace-living room. In order to take into account the individual needs and tastes of the residents, the author has developed various layout options for block apartments, where the only permanent element is a walled-off bathroom with an adjoining kitchen. One of the options provided for the owner himself to partition the space with the help of only cabinets, sideboards, refrigerators.

Block apartments were also supposed to be built, more precisely, installed in isolation as individual houses.

Several blocks were experimentally made, but in general, the program of mass industrial housing construction proposed by Niemeyer was not implemented. Four-story residential buildings with prefabricated walls and large-span ceilings supported by monolithic stairwells were built for university professors according to the design of Niemeyer's collaborator, architect J. Filgueiras Lim, who later became Brazil's largest master of prefabricated building architecture.

After the official opening of the new capital and the departure of J. Kubizek from the presidency, the pace of construction of Brasilia slowed down noticeably. And the military coup of 1964 made the work of Oscar Niemeyer and his friends in the city almost impossible.

In 1965, Niemeyer, free of charge, as a gift to the city, developed an airport project for Brasilia. His main concern was to build "... the gates of the new capital, which had to be in harmony with its architecture so that every visitor felt that a new and modern city was waiting for him" . And Niemeyer Airport would meet such a purpose. It was designed as a multi-tiered, according to the most technologically advanced ring scheme at that time, and from the outside, the coating of the ring had to be supported by supports of unusual shape, barely touching the ground. Their silhouette, as it were, anticipated the diversity and lightness of the columns of the palaces of Brasilia. Quite unusually, a control tower was conceived in the form of a lentil, raised above the airfield by an inclined ribbed pylon, evoking the jet of gases escaping from jet nozzles during takeoff.

The project received unanimous approval from the architectural community, but the military authorities did not allow the construction of the capital's airport according to the project of a progressive public figure. At first, objections of an economic order were put forward, then a technological one, but once an irritated general frankly told reporters: "The place of a Marxist architect is in Moscow." O. Niemeyer appealed to the press to protest against the rejection of the project, he was supported by many public figures and architects, and for two months this case did not leave the newspapers.

Despite the fact that the airport was built according to the design of another architect (Nauru Estevis) and acquired a trivial appearance, Niemeyer won an important moral and even political victory over the arbitrariness of power.

Since the mid-1960s, the construction of government buildings in Brasilia has become more active again. The first of the palaces of the new generation was the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which received two names: Itamaraty (after the name of the former royal palace in Rio de Janeiro, in which it was located before moving to the new capital) and the Arc Palace in accordance with its appearance, possibly also partly inspired by the image of the former palace. The Palace of the Arches closes the chain of buildings of ministries in front of the Palace of the National Congress, and its image serves as an important compositional accent-transition between them. This "feature" corresponds to the specific representative function of the building, besides, its construction marked the emergence of new trends in Brazilian and world architecture, in particular, the increased interest in the artistic heritage, which was already peculiarly manifested in the first palaces of Brasilia.

The glass cube of the main premises, topped by a lush garden with sculptures on a flat roof, is, as it were, dressed in an exquisitely shaped arcade with a flat covering in the form of a pergola. The slenderness of its columns, smoothly turning into arches, is emphasized by the wedge-shaped shape and the thinnest horizontal of their completion. The columns rise directly from the water of the surrounding pool building with islands covered with tropical plants; due to reflection, their height visually doubles. The arcade seems especially elegant and at the same time quite material from the side of the esplanade against the background of the glass parallelepiped of the ministry's business premises.

The novelty of the arcade, its difference from the colonnades of the palaces of Planaltu and the Supreme Court, is also manifested in the material - concrete with traces of formwork, contrasting with the white marble of the columns in the Square of the Three Powers. But they are reminiscent in color and texture of the sculpture "Meteor" (works by B. Giorgi) in the form of a carved white marble ball, placed at the main entrance, to which a ribbon of a bridge is thrown across the pool. From under the arches spectacular views of the Palace of the National Congress open.

The interiors of the Arok Palace are spacious and richly decorated with sculpture and painting; along with ultra-modern compositions, baroque sculptures of flying angels and a ceremonial painting of the 19th century were used.

The building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has become perhaps the most expressive and well-known government building in Brasilia, which reflects the characteristic inconsistency of Niemeyer's creative activity: with a program of striving for ensemble building, he certainly thinks in separate, complete volumes. In the new construction phase of Brasilia and creative way Niemeyer, a secondary building, transitional in its place in the structure of the center, the development of which the architect paid special attention to, although it echoes the palace opposite, acquired a leading compositional role. The especially expressive character of this building is associated, as already mentioned, with its special functional and semantic role of representing the country outside.

On the opposite side of the esplanade is the building of the Ministry of Justice - the Palace of Justice (1970), originally designed as a treasury. Its structure is similar to the Palace of the Aroks, the service rooms are grouped around a landscaped courtyard. The facades of the building are solved in different ways. The side façade has been transformed into giant sunblinds with vertical slats spaced at various distances and rotated at various angles to create a complex, oscillating rhythm. The main façade, like the Itamarati façade, is formed by a full-height arcade, but interpreted in a completely different way: it is not spatial, stereometric due to the bevels of the columns and the archivolt, but emphatically flat, with hard edges echoing the horizontal glazing rods. The narrow pylons-supports of the arches are developed in depth, and between them at different heights plastic reinforced concrete canopies of a trough-shaped section are fixed, from which water (Niemeyer gives it an increasingly active formative role) falls in cascades into the pool surrounding the building. The decorative nature of the arcade is demonstrated by its placement only in the central part of the facade - directly against the glazed volume, while the outermost, moreover, widened spans against the shaded bypasses are covered only by a flat slab resting at the corners on thin rectangular pylons.

The facade of the building of the Ministry of the Armed Forces also forms a prefabricated arcade, visually more massive. The outer, almost blank wall is assembled from a complex shape of trough-shaped strut-walls with ribs outward, which is why the building has acquired a closed, impregnable appearance. The monotonous long row of these panels resembles the ceremonial close formation of soldiers. Only the visor above the entrance cuts through this wall-fence.

The author of landscaping all these palaces, R. Burley-Marx, installed in the reservoir in front of the Ministry of the Armed Forces a kind of group of concrete monoliths - "sculptures" resembling anti-tank gouges, sharpening the unfriendly "militant" image of the structure even more.

In front of the facade of the ministry, the Military Pantheon was erected in the form of a flat vault and an obelisk nearby.

At the same time, not far from the Palace of the Dawn, the residence of the president of the republic, O. Niemeyer built a small Jaburu palace for the vice president. Its appearance is also dominated by the horizontal of a flat roof, but the colonnade of the Palace of Dawn is replaced here by corner pylons-buttresses with inclined edges. The overhang of the roof obscures, as in the presidential palace, a continuous large-scale dissected glazing of the outer walls.

Thus, a seemingly inexplicable process took place: during the years of the reactionary dictatorship, when the illusions of the period of "desenvolvimentism" were dispelled (the peak of which fell on the construction and the first years of the functioning of Brasilia), when the city itself acquired a completely different political and symbolic meaning, and Niemeyer ardently opposed the regime - "... I have never seen so many contradictions and so much violence ..." - magnificent palaces continued to be built according to designs and under the supervision of an architect persecuted for political reasons. However, the contradiction here is really apparent. With consistent speeches against the anti-people state, Niemeyer seeks to embody his idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe symbols of democratic power in government buildings and other buildings of the capital, to create their architectural images that correspond to his optimistic view of the future.

In addition, we must not forget that Brasilia is Niemeyer's favorite and most important and significant work, to which he devoted many years and could not relieve himself of creative responsibility for the result, refuse to participate in the development and completion of the ensemble: "We repeatedly came up with the idea drop everything and leave Brasilia. We kept asking ourselves: “How much can you argue? Why are we forced to respond to all these stupid attacks against us? "But Brasilia had already become a part of ourselves by this time, and we still remained there to defend it to the best of our ability."

The projects of the palaces of Arches and Justice were developed in 1962 - 1964 - during the years of public upsurge. In addition, the architect here considered the most complex and interesting professional tasks, for the solution of which unusual opportunities were provided, and the professional architect could not (and probably should not) refuse them. If the construction of Brasilia began as a social utopia, then later, after the loss of utopian illusions, an aesthetic utopia remained and came to the fore, the desire for beauty as a means of uplifting and inspiring the masses. Perhaps that is why the late palaces of Brasilia, regardless of their functional purpose, are especially inspired and humane, artistically expressive.

In the 70s, Niemeyer, realizing the need to continue working in the capital, built a small residential building of his own in Brasilia. Just like the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs somewhat earlier, it reflected a major change in architectural thinking and aesthetic preferences. If Niemeyer's own houses in Rio de Janeiro 1942 and 1953 were built in the most modern forms for that time, the house in Brasilia has a much more traditional look. Only smooth white wall, overlooking the site from under the roof, resembles the concrete planes of earlier buildings, but here the solid glass walls are replaced by square window openings. The image of the building is created by a high tiled roof, the overhang of which, forming a spacious terrace, is supported by square pillars.

The correspondent office of the Manshete magazine, built in the late 1970s, bears no literal signs of the architecture of the past. Only the flat covering of the entrance gallery had vault-like roundings at the columns. The one-story building with all-glass walls resembles a pavilion surrounding a landscaped hexagonal courtyard. The pavilion character is emphasized by the round pool in front of the main entrance.

During this period, the monumental and symbolic design of the capital was also saturated.

The old compositional ideas of an undulating roof with beams protruding outward on a triangular plan and a combination of a light concrete vaulted shell with an obelisk were used in the military pantheon.

And in September 1981, Oscar Niemeyer's dream came true - in the green area near the TV tower, a memorial was opened to the initiator of the construction of Brasilia, Juscelin Kubitschek, whose enthusiasm and energy, as O. Niemeyer repeatedly stated, ensured the successful construction of Brasilia. The main element of the ensemble is a flat parallelepiped with beveled side faces, which accommodates the memorial library, office and auditorium. Above the lobby rises an egg-shaped skylight. In front of the volume there is a cascade of several steps of flat pools. An obelisk rises on the upper step, crowned with an arched concrete slab, under which there is a statue of the president with a raised hand, as if overshadowing the city created by his will and perseverance. On the stone at the foot of the monument are carved the words of the "founder of Brasilia": "Everything changes at dawn in this city that opens into Tomorrow" *.

* (Manchete, Rio de Janeiro, 1981, 19 de setembro, no. 1535, p. one.)

On the Square of the Three Powers opposite the building museum of Brasilia, a museum of the hero of the national liberation struggle in Brazil of the 18th century was designed (1980). Tiradentis. Its main exhibit, which largely determined the volumetric and spatial structure, will be the famous fresco by Candido Portinari being transferred to the new capital. Therefore, a low, relatively small building is, as it were, rolled up from a concrete tape. In its hall, a fresco will be fixed at a distance from the vault wall, on which the overhead light falls through a “curl” lantern, and a balcony for viewing is arranged opposite. The visitor will be able to get to the balcony from the ground level via a slab-bridge, on which a huge sculptural head of Tiradentis by A. Seschiati should be installed.

In the early 1980s, Niemeyer designed the Indian Museum and several government, public and residential buildings for Brasilia.

According to the 1980 census, the population of Brasilia reached almost 1 million 200 thousand people. It is a lively city with a developed structure, full of cars, traffic, with a large number of construction sites.

Despite all the difficulties and contradictions that Niemeyer noted literally in every speech, he was happy to see the desert "... simple, welcoming, dynamic and monumental ... a beautiful and civilized city" .

However, these estimates are rather wishful thinking. The reality was different. In the same interview, Niemeyer emphasized: "... there is as much injustice and discrimination in Brasilia as in any city in our country ...". Despite its architectural control, Brasilia inevitably loses a lot of value from its planning design. In 1984, he said: "The current Brasilia has changed a lot, has lost to a certain extent its original integrity and originality. Many buildings have appeared that violated the plan architectural style capital Cities" * .

* (Abroad.- 1984.- No. 23 (1248).- P. 22.)

And as a result, in 1985, as the Izvestia newspaper reported, O. Niemeyer decided to leave his offspring and settle permanently in Rio de Janeiro. He explains his decision by the changes that have taken place in the planning of the city and the purpose of buildings. "The President's Palace has become a club, the Itamaraty Palace has become something like a luxurious Miami hotel," Niemeyer said. But in Rio, he soon again took up projects for Brasilia: a theater under open sky for 5,000 seats and recreation areas for residents of the capital on the sides of the highway around the artificial lake Paranoa ** .

Edged board 40x150x6000 from a manufacturer in Moscow and the region

A student of the great French architect Le Corbusier, the most devoted servant of modernism and the author of more than 600 buildings around the world, Oscar Niemeyer passed away at the age of 104, just ten days before his 105th birthday. It happened on December 5 in Niemeyer's native Rio de Janeiro. Niemeyer's buildings made a real revolution in the architecture of Brazil of the 20th century - for 80 years of his work he changed the face of this country.

Oscar Niemeyer was born December 15, 1907 in Rio de Janeiro. He attended a privileged college where he first developed an interest in architecture.

Oscar Niemeyer with his wife and daughter. 1930s

In the 1930s, any buildings in Niemeyer's homeland still copied neoclassical European architecture - the buildings looked like luxuriously decorated Baroque palaces and did not correspond in any way to the new way of life of people. However, by the will of fate, Oscar managed to break the ideas of his compatriots about how buildings should look. In the early 1940s, he met Juscelino Kubitschek, the future president of Brazil, who invited Niemeyer to develop a development project for a young city designed to become the new capital. Niemeyer agreed and after 4 years (from 1956 to 1960) he surprised the whole world with his bold futuristic buildings of administrative buildings in Brasilia. There were no more magnificent and idle buildings, so boring to the eye of the Brazilians, there were only smooth, flexible lines of new buildings, dearly loved by the architect himself.

With his works, Niemeyer not only shaped the new face of Brazilian national architecture, but also freed the country from its colonial past, which was still reflected in art, and, moreover, gave it confidence in the future. He managed to develop his own unique style in architecture and was the first to use monolithic reinforced concrete to create smooth, graceful, openwork structures.

Government Palace in Brasilia, 1960

In addition to creating buildings in Brazil, Oscar Niemeyer has also been active outside of Brazil, collaborating with foreign companies. In the early stages of his career, he became known to the world as a participant in the project to create the UN headquarters in New York. Later, during his emigration to France (due to the onset of the military dictatorship in Brazil), Niemeyer created many public buildings for Europe as well. The architect was cut off from his homeland and yearned for it, but he was able to return back only in 1985. Three years later, in 1988, Niemeyer received the main architectural award - the Pritzker Prize.

Work in his native Brazil continued until the death of the architect. When he returned, he created a memorial named after President Kubizek, a museum of modern art in Niteroi, his own museum and the Oscar Niemeyer cultural center, where the famous Brazilian carnival takes place.

Residential building "Copan" in Sao Paulo, 1951-1965

“I am not attracted to right angles and straight, unchanging and clear lines created by man. I am attracted to curves, free and sensual. Those curves that we can see in mountain silhouettes, in the form of sea waves, on the body of a beloved woman,” wrote Niemeyer in his memoir The Curves Of Time. Buro 24/7 offers to recall some of his "curvilinear" works, which left a significant mark on the history of architecture. In the meantime, Brazil has declared a week of mourning for the departed genius today, and on Friday everyone will be able to say goodbye to Oscar Niemeyer in Rio de Janeiro.

Ibirapuera Auditorium in Ibirapuera Park, Sao Paulo, 2002

“The main thing in architecture is that it be new, touch a person’s soul, be useful to him, so that a person can enjoy it ...”

Ibirapuera Auditorium in Ibirapuera Park, Sao Paulo, 2002

"Only concrete allows me to control the bends of such a wide range ... concrete provides a continuous modulation of space"

Palace of the National Congress in Brasilia, 1960

National Museum of Brazil, 2006

“All my life I have loved to look at the clouds, waiting for revelation in their ever-changing forms”

Cathedral in Brasilia, 1960-1970

Memorial to Kubizek, 1980

"...straight lines and angles divide and divide space, and I have always loved curves, which are the essence of the nature around us"

Museum of Modern Art in Niteroi, 1996

Museum of Modern Art in Niteroi.

“A freely curved and sensual line beckons me. That line that reminds me of the mountains of my country, the bizarre bends of the rivers, the high clouds, the body of the woman I love.”

Oscar Niemeyer Foundation in Niteroi

Oscar Ribeiro di Almeida di Niemeyer Soaris Filho realized the first project (a nursery in Rio de Janeiro) in 1937, in his incomplete 30 years. The last project realized during the lifetime of the architect was the television tower in Brasilia, opened in 2012. Niemeyer worked constantly and tirelessly. On his desktop, there was a project for a restaurant building in Rio de Janeiro, on which the 104-year-old architect had been working in recent days.

The Creator is alive in his creations. And this means that more than 400 buildings built by this fantastic architect in 18 countries of the world continue the life of their Creator. At the moment, according to his project, the construction of the Pele Museum in the city of Santos is being completed. And how many more finished, but so far unrealized projects will see life thanks to colleagues and students of Niemeyer, our descendants will be able to tell.

Oscar Ribeiro di Almeida di Niemeyer Soaris Filho realized his first project (a nursery in Rio de Janeiro) in 1937, in his incomplete 30 years. The last project implemented during the lifetime of the architect was the television tower in Brasilia, opened in 2012.

Niemeyer worked constantly and tirelessly. On his desktop, there was a project for a restaurant building in Rio de Janeiro, on which the 104-year-old architect worked in the last days of his life.

The Creator is alive in his creations. And this means that more than 400 buildings built by this fantastic architect in 18 countries of the world continue the life of their Creator. At the moment, according to his project, the construction of the Pele Museum in the city of Santos is being completed. And how many more finished, but so far unrealized projects will see life thanks to colleagues and students of Niemeyer, our descendants will be able to tell.

“There is no architecture ancient and modern. There is good or bad

“The main thing in architecture is that it be new, touch a person’s soul, be useful to him so that a person can enjoy it ...”

“All my life I have loved to look at the clouds, waiting for revelation in their ever-changing forms”

“...straight lines and angles divide and divide space, and I have always loved curves, which are the essence of the nature around us”

“A freely curved and sensual line beckons me. That line that reminds me of the mountains of my country, the bizarre bends of the rivers, the high clouds, the body of the woman I love.”

“Only concrete allows me to control curves of such a wide scope… concrete provides a continuous modulation of space”

1. House Canoas (Casa das Canoas) - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 1954

Drawings and photographs of this house, built by Niemeyre for his family, have been included in international reference books on architecture as a vivid example of the fusion of the building with the surrounding nature. There are no clear boundaries and corners here, the design of the house is adapted to the unevenness of the earth's surface. One of the walls of the house was erected over a huge stone that had lain for millennia in this place. Part of this stone is located in the courtyard, while the other creates the original interior of the living room.

2. National Congress - Brasilia, Brazil. 1958

This most famous building of Oscar Niemeyer is located on the central axis of the capital of Brazil. It is considered to be the main architectural dominant of the city.

The building is inscribed in the surrounding relief and is connected to the administrative buildings by underground passages. Behind the Congress building is the Three Powers Square, where solemn parades and meetings of official guests take place.

3. Palace of Dawn (Palácio da Alvorada) - Brasilia, Brazil. 1958

This three-story building with a total area of ​​7000 m², located on the peninsula of the Paranoa reservoir, is the official residence of the President of Brazil.

Medical center, conference room, swimming pool, several dining rooms, music room and library…

The first floor of the palace is intended for official receptions; on the second floor there are premises for the personal use of the president and his family.

4. Residence Copan (Résidence Edificio Copan) - Sao Paulo, Brazil. 1966

A huge undulating building resembling a waving flag, this is the largest residential complex in Latin America.

In principle, this is one house. But the house is so big that it even has its own zip code. On an area of ​​6006 m², under the roof of the 38-storey Copan, there are six residential blocks, in which about 5 thousand people live, and a shopping center.

5. Cathedral (Catedral de Brasília) - Brasilia, Brazil. 1970

It was for the design of this cathedral that Niemeyer received the Pritzker Prize "for the best building in the style of modernism."

Sixteen hyperboloid columns of the Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary symbolize 8 pairs of hands raised to the sky.

To get inside the cathedral, you need to go down a few meters underground. Passing through the dark corridor, as if through the darkness of his own sins, the visitor finds himself in a light, bright, fabulous space. The light from the ceiling and through the stained-glass windows, located between 16 columns, gives a feeling of endless heavenly happiness.

6. Cultural Center Volcano - Le Havre, France. 1982

Cultural Center Vulcan is one of the attractions of the city of Le Havre. It consists of two blocks, which are called the "Big Volcano" and "Small Volcano" respectively. The Bolshoi has a 1200-seat theater and a 350-seat cinema. In Maly there are several different halls from 60 to 500 seats.

7. Museum of Modern Art - Niteroi, Brazil. 1996

According to the architect, this is his most grandiose project.

Everything is grandiose here: the unusual appearance of the building, which everyone unanimously dubbed “ spaceship aliens"; the arrangement of exhibition halls in a spiral; and a breathtaking view from the observation deck. This view of Rio de Janeiro with a huge sculpture of Christ, with the ocean and beaches, often distracts museum visitors from the expositions themselves.

8. Oscar Niemeyer Museum - Curitiba, Brazil. 2002

The Museum of Video Art, Architecture and Design covers an area of ​​19,000 m². The museum building, 16 m high with a three-story dome 50 m in diameter, is installed in the center of an artificial reservoir on a concrete pedestal.

Of the many nicknames, two have stuck to this building: "The All-Seeing Eye" and "Oscar's Eye". During the day, the "eye" made of mirror glass reflects the sky, and at night it glows from within.

9. Ibirapuera Concert Hall (Auditório Ibirapuera) - Sao Paulo, Brazil. 2005

The public unanimously decided that almost a century-old architect Oscar Niemeyer thus "showed his tongue to the whole world." Indeed, the bright red canopy over the entrance to the concert hall resembles a long tongue.

One of the design features of the building is the ability to lower the rear wall. Thus, viewers have the opportunity to watch performances while being in the open air.

10. Digital Television Tower - Brasilia. 2012

The construction of the television tower was completed in 2010, on the 50th anniversary of the city of Brasilia, but the grand opening took place only 2 years later, on April 21, 2012.

The total height of the tower is 180 m. The 60-meter top is, in fact, a metal television antenna.

Niemeyer called the 120-meter base of the tower with two branches ending in glass domes "The Cerrado Flower". In the upper "flower", 80 meters from the ground, it is planned to open a restaurant, and the lower "flower" will be used as an art gallery.

The Brazilian architect was born in 1907 in the famous colorful city of Rio de Janeiro, his full name is Oscar Niemeyer Suaris Filho. He graduated from the National Art School in Rio de Janeiro in 1934. And since 1935 he began to work in the architectural studio of Luciu Costa. This sensual artist managed to combine the architectural principles of Le Corbusier with the cultural reality of Brazil, with the riot of tropical sensuality of his hometown, Oscar's favorite Rio de Janeiro.

Cathedral in Brasilia 1960-1970

Niemeyer created a unique style of architecture, which is based on the splendor of forms and plastic freedom, where reinforced concrete potential was fully used as the main building material.

Cathedral in Brasilia (view from the inside) 1960-1970.

Already by the forties, when developing a sports entertainment complex in the city of Pampulha, Oscar Niemeyer struck the world community of architects on the spot when he abandoned standard solutions in the style of the then formally rational trends of modernism that were dominant at that time and turned to architecture with unique imagination and unexpected techniques.

The unique architect in the 60s began to design important public buildings in the new capital of Brazil - Brasilia. Today, this most complex and fully completed urban ensemble of modernism has a high status as a World Heritage Site and is under the protection of UNESCO. From that time to the present day, Oscar has created a great many wonderful projects both for his country and for the world in general. Almost all of his works belong to a more poetic orientation of modernism, based on sensuality and plasticity.

Government Palace in Brasilia 1960

Oskar Niemeyer, having developed a number of original solutions based on the extensive use of curvilinear forms, was able to adapt the origins of the "international style" in the exotic and originally baroque realities of the tropics. Niemeyer's most significant contribution to architectural modernity is his commitment to creative free ideas, appreciation of individual talents and understanding that architecture is main way artistic expression in the superiority of Man.

Museum of Modern Art in Niteroi 1996

For Niemeyer, beauty is an instrument of aesthetic influence that has established itself as political independence. This choice was also echoed in the personal convictions of the architect, who for a long time determined his private and public life at a difficult time for political Brazil.