RIP Oscar Niemeyer

© Frank Camhi

It is with the deepest and sincerest regrets to inform my readers of the passing of noted Latin Modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer 1907 - 2012. The acclaimed and highly influential architect and political activist died of natural causes on the 6th December - 2 weeks short of his 105 birthday.

Oscar Niemeyer began his own practice, after a brief stint within the office of Lúcio Costa and Carlos Leão that stemmed collaborations with Le Corbusier. His architecture whilst in dozen of countries, and has come to define the essence and culture of Brazil and moreover the whimsical forms of Latin Modernism. His accomplished work of fluid and free-formed concrete sculpture spanned decades and in 1988 he was awarded with profession's highest honour, the Pritzker Prize.

Up until his last breath, there was no greater living architect than Oscar Niemeyer.

illustrate & exclaim...

The Curves of Time - Memoirs of Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Niemeyer
Phaidon Press (2007)
Rating: 4 stars

An unceremonious autobiography that aims to capture the enthusiasm for life, the Brazilian landscape, many loves and friendships of master architect Oscar Niemeyer. More than a chronological documentation of his life, it reads as an emotional reflection of the social and political influences that shaped his thoughts and his works. Reissued on the centenary of his birth, it paints a personal and moreover a historical glimpse of his contribution to modern architecture. The informality of the book aside - original sketches by the architect adorn the pages, seeking to illustrate and exclaim where the story or perhaps his memory falls short.

N is for Niemeyer

Oscar Niemeyer was a contemporary of Le Corbusier, having collaborated on numerous projects in Brazil and France. His ouevre is modern in scope with its details have always been catered to the realities of its environment both naturally and socially. Niemeyer's work wonders with its concrete delight, despite emgerging from a communist aesthetic, always delivers the monumental.

In his own words: Oscar Niemeyer

Arguably the most influential living architect...Oscar Niemeyer talking about Brasilia

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Niemeyer in Ravello

[...] It's not the right angle that attracts me, and not even the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. What attracts me is the sensual free curve, the curve that I meet in the mountains of my country, in the preferred woman, in the clouds of the sky and in the waves of the sea.

Oscar Niemeyer

The house is like a ma-chine? No! The mechanical is ugly

An interview via the Times Online with Oscar Niemeyer, master Brazilian architect who turns 100 on Saturday (mark your calenders). Niemeyer in this interview talks in general terms about his extensive architectural career and his belief in Communism.

blog wunderlust: 10th December 2012

It is important that the architect think not only of architecture but of how architecture can solve the problems of the world. The architect’s role is to fight for a better world, where he can produce an architecture that serves everyone and not just a group of privileged people.

Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho

Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer - who designed much of Brazil's capital - dies aged 104 | holographic trees and floating bridges | Rolex Arts Initiative Mentor Kazuyo Sejima Selects Yang Zhao as Architecture Protégé | Hashima island, the real-life island of Skyfall | Fashion ARCHetypes | The Affordable Housing Crisis | Why Diversity is Good Business in Architecture |

last word: Strength In Numbers - Design Wunderkind attributes success to teamwork

blog wunderlust: 17th December 2012

I am attracted to free-flowing, sensual curves. The curves that I find in the mountains of my country....

Niemeyer

image (c) David Cuthbert

Architects pay tribute to Oscar Niemeyer | History of BIM | What Jane Jacobs Got Wrong About Urban Economies | 10 Techniques for Making Cities More Walkable | The Walkie-Talkie: battle of the bulge on Fenchurch Street | how to treat your architect | EyeTime 2012: Competition Winners Announced | Yale Celebrates Women in Architecture | Hadid Supreme - Zaha in the Glossies | Modern Architecture’s Golden Age, Captured By A Master Photographer

last word: Dominican architectural designer gets global accolade

Oscar Niemeyer - Living Legend

"I like women, I like to laugh, drink wine, say foolish things," Niemeyer said

see the link

this has been another architecture post

Architect of optimism | article on Oscar Niemeyer and then there is this and this not bad for a man of 99 years old

blog wunderlust : 20 December 2010

The walled city is an extension of our skins as much as houses and clothing

Lewis Mumford

Moore, Ruble & Yudell win Governor's Award for Design & Construction in Cayman | Robert A.M. Stern wins Driehaus Prize | Gaza repair strategies | UAE erects 11 million Christmas tree | Delays persist in EU accreditation for (Caribbean) Architects | free consultation: architect in the gallery | Oscar Niemeyer open museum at 103

blog wunderlust: 6th August 2012

Architecture ‘teaches.’ A planned city, a monument, or even a simple dwelling can be a symbol of the cosmos

Yi-Fu Tuan,
Space and Place p. 102

architect designed necklace | Can I build a natural Passivhaus? | finalists for the ONE PRIZE 2012 | CAD versus Sketching, Why Ask? | The Snoozebox Portable Hotel | Bringing Architectural Ghosts Back To Life, In Knoxville | A Robotic 3D Printer That Uses Sand To Produce Sculptures | 104-Year-Old Architect, Oscar Niemeyer Releases 3D Photos of Iconic Work | The Olympian Architects T-shirt [protest]

last word: Q&A with Diana Balmori

blog wunderlust : 21 December 2009

thermae bath spa by Nicholas Grimshaw Architects

102 and still counting, happy birthday Oscar Niemeyer | a pair of pixelated high rises by SAKO | aerial photos of England | smashing windows - criminal art | Frank and the Rabbi | gingerbread architecture

WAN posters now available

The sun never knew how wonderful it was until it fell on the wall of a building

Louis Kahn

blog wunderlust: 11th February 2013

Architecture is a discipline that speaks to all your senses.

Pierre de Meuron

National Register of Historic Places Recognizes Two Post-War Parks | 180-Foot Tall Mural In Brazil: In Memory of Oscar Niemeyer | ‘Buildings’ That Literally Suck | Hillary Clinton uses Frank Gehry's architecture as an analogy for how to restructure world policies | Balthazar Korab, Architectural Photographer, Dies at 86 | RIBA awards gold medal to architecture’s man of mystery

controversy: Of all things to stop starchitect Bjarke Ingels in his plans for world domination, a TREE!

last word: The Beautiful Hand-Drawn Home Facades Of Burkina Faso

The Ibirapuera Park Marquise in São Paulo, Brazil

Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo, Brazil designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer and landscape designer Otávio Agusto de Teixeira Mendes.

blog wunderlust : 17 January 2011

My work is not about "form follows function," but "form follows beauty" or, even better, "form follows feminine."

Oscar Niemeyer

In L.A., a Restaurant by Rolling Stone | Farming in a Ruin | Rhino for iPad | New Yorkers take shelter from winter in a downtown pop-up park | the return of common sense | stunning architecture photographs | meet Britain's brightest young architects | The Melnikov house and the battle for the Soviet era's artistic soul |

Want to hone your architecture and design searches to just the right architecture blogs? This search box uses Google Co-op to point the Google machine at a list of popular architecture and design blogs.

The blog wunderlust is a weekly round up summarizing the architectural highlights, news and web links, that don't otherwise fit the format of this blog. If you have any to share feel free to drop me an email

Dezeen Tv: Marquise do Parque do Ibirapuera

A film about the Marquise do Parque do Ibirapuera in São Paulo, Brazil, designed by Oscar Niemeyer in 1952 captured by photographer Pedro Kok for Dezeen Tv.

weekend reading

The curves of an architect's career - LA Times article on Oscar Niemeyer

Mies & the Nazis - Guardian recaps the closing of the Bauhaus

Oscars to Get Their Own Museum - de Portzamparc to design a museum on the history of film

blog wunderlust: 30 August 2010

That is the problem with so much architecture. This speed is impossible. Some people think the computer is so quick, for example. But the computer does not think for you, and the time it takes us to think does not change.

Alvaro Siza

I like the way he thinks | architect promises timeless gallery | LEGO architecture: towering ambition | the $300 House: a hands-on reverse innovation? | Niemeyer designed... chocolate bar? | composting loo on the Hudson | a box of fresh air | Rietveld Jr | jewelry for the city | signs of life | confessions of an architect's spouse

The blog wunderlust is a weekly round up summarizing the architectural highlights, news and web links, that don't otherwise fit the format of this blog. If you have any to share feel free to drop me an email

100 books - the architect's version

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC came up with some silly list that most people have read a small number of 100 books listed.

I think that is total bollocks since I've spent much of my adult life reading architecture books.

So I made a new list and I'm seeking the help of my friends to carry it to 100. Instructions: I've added a few seminal texts... suggest some others and let's give the BBC a real show.

1. City of Bits - William Mitchell
2. Event Cities (1, 2 & 3) - Bernard Tschumi
3. The Curves of Time - Oscar Niemeyer
4. SMLXL - Rem Koolhaas/Bruce Mau
5. Towards a New Architecture - Le Corbusier
6. Architecture After Modernism - Diane Ghiardo
7. The Architecture of Happiness - Alain de Botton
8. Design Like you Give a Damn - Architecture for Humanity
10. Architecture and Utopia - Manfredo Tafuri
11. The Space of Encounter - Daniel Libeskind
12. Thinking Architecture - Peter Zumthor
13. Experiencing Architecture - Steen Eiler Rasmussen
14. 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School - Matthew Frederick
15. For an Architecture of Reality - Michael Benedikt
16. The Poetics of Space - Gaston Bachelard
17. Discrimination by Design - Leslie Weisman
18. The Temple in the House - Anthony Lawlor
19. Athens Charter - CIAM (Le Corbusier)
20. Delirious New York - Rem Koolhaas
21. Manhattan Transcripts - Bernard Tschumi
22. Radiant City - Le Corbusier
23. An Essay on Architecture - Marc-Antoine Laugier
24. The Ten Books on Architecture - Vitruvius
25. On the Art of Building in Ten Books - Leon Battista Alberti
26. Essential Texts - Louis Kahn
27. City Planning According to Artistic Principles - Camillo Sitte
28. Team 10 Primer - Alison Smithson (ed.)
29. The Architecture of the City - Aldo Rossi
30. Learning from Las Vegas - Robert Venturi, et. al.
31. Collage City - Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter
32. Kindergarten Chats and Other Writings - Louis Sullivan
33. Space, Time and Architecture - Sigfried Giedion
34. The Death and Life of Great American Cities - Jane Jacobs
35. The Four Books of Architecture - Andrea Palladio
36. Design with Nature - Ian McHarg
37. The Seven Lamps of Architecture - John Ruskin
38. Scope of Total Architecture - Walter Gropius
39. Building with Nature - Richard Neutra
40. Ornament and Crime: Selected Essays - Adolf Loos
41. The Living City - Frank Lloyd Wright
42. A Pattern Language - Christopher Alexander
43. Eyes Of The Skin - Juhani Pallasmaa
44. Mask of Medusa - John Hejduk
45. Architecture Of Disjunction - Bernard Tschumi
46. Topology Of A Phantom City - Alain Robbe-Grillet
47. Education Of An Architect - Elizabeth Diller, John Hejduk, etc
48. Architecture Theory Since 1968 - K. Michael Hays
49. Teach Your Chicken To Fly - Trevor Weekes
50. Palace of the Peacock - Wilson Harris
51. Why Buildings Stand Up - Mario Salvadori
52. The Place of Houses - Charles Moore et al
53. How Designers think - Bryan Lawson
54. Chambers for a Memory Palace - Charles Moore et al
55. The Design Studio - Donald Schon
56. city of slums mike davis
57. the Sphere and the Labyrinth - Manfredo Tafuri
58. Programs and Manifestoes of 20th century architecture - Ulrich Conrads
59. Inside Architecture - Vittorio Gregotti
60. Critical History of Modern Architecture - Kenneth Frampton
61. Architecture of Four Ecologies - Reyner Banham, Anthony Vidler
62. The Image of the City - Kevin Lynch
63. House for Mr. Biswas - VS Naipaul
64. Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture - Steven Holl, etc
65. The World of Perception - Maurice Merleau Ponty
66. Phenomenology of Perception - Maurice Merleau Ponty
67. Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge - Perez-Gomez & Pelletier
68. The Troubadour of Knowledge - Michael Serres
69. 13 Ways - Richard Harbison
70. Kaz Antiye Jan Moun Ka Rete: Caribbean Popular Dwelling - Jack Berthelot
71. Cities: X Lines: Approaches to City and Open Territory Design - Joan Busquets
72. The Landscape Urbanism Reader - Charles Waldheim
73. Recovering Landscape - Essays in Contemporary Landscape Theory - ed James Corner
74. File under Architecture - Herbert Muschamp
75. Labour Work and Architecture - Kenneth Frampton
76. Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in 19 & 20th c Architecture - Kenneth Frampton
77. Emergency, Deadline, Duration - Marc Jalet
78. The Honeywood File: An Adventure in Building - H.B. Creswell
79. The Social Logic of Space - Hillier and Hanson
80. Tropical Architecture in the Humid Zone - Fry and Drew
81. Constructing Architecture: Materials, Processes, Structures - Andrea Deplazes
82. Constructing Landscape: Materials, Techniques, Structural Components - Astrid Zimmeman
83. Plusminus 20/40 Latitude: Sustainable Building Design in Tropical and Subtropical Regions - Dirk Hindrichs
84. Typographie - Otl Aicher
85. The World as Design - Otl Aicher
86. Analogous Digital - Otl Aicher
87. Intermediate Natures - the Landscapes of Michael Desvigne
88. The Architect in Practice - Chappell & Willis
89. Intermediate Natures: The Landscapes of Michel Desvigne - Elizabeth Zugler
90. Die Küche zum Kochen: Das Ende Einer Architekturdoktrin - Otl Aicher
91. Theoretical Anxiety and Design Strategies - Rafael Moneo
92. The Public Chance: New Urban Landscapes - Aurora Fernandez Per & Javier Arpa
93. Roberto Burle Marx: Landscapes Reflected - Rossana Vaccarino (ed)
94. Latin America Architecture 1929 to 1960 - Brillenbourg & Riley
95. ANY series (Anything, Anyone, Anywhere, Anyway, Anyplace, Anywise, Anybody, Anyhow, Anytime, and Anymore) - Cynthia Davidson (ed.)
96. Sites of Memory: Perspectives on Architecture and Race - Craig Evan Barton
97. Agenda: Can we sustain our ability to crisis - JDS architects
98. Architecture NOW! (series) - Philip Jodidio
99. Space & Place - Yi-Fu Tuan
100.Analysing Architecture - Simon Unwin


Special thanks to Architects Mark Raymond, Jacquiann Lawton, Donna Sink, Ken Koense, Phillip Crosby, Rohan Bailey, Barry Lehrman, Ana María León, Daren Moncrieffe and students Vanessa Hartley, Dwayne Webb, Stein Carrington & Sheena Marston for their contributions