Oscar Niemeyer - First Works

First Works

After graduating, he started to work in his father's typography house. Even though he was not financially stable at the time, he insisted in working in the architecture studio of Lucio Costa, Gregori Warchavchik and Carlos Leão, even though they could not pay him. Niemeyer joined the studio as a draftsmen, and art that he mastered (Corbusier himself would latter compliment Nimeyer's 'beautiful perspectives'). The contact with Lucio Costa would be extremely important in the professional maturity of Niemeyer's work. It was Costa who, after an initial flertation with the Neocolonial movement, realized that the current advances of the international style in Europe were the only true manifestation of a contemporary architecture. His writings on the technical truth and simplicity which united the traditional colonial architecture of Brazil (such as that in Olinda) and the modernist principles would be the basis of the architecture which would be latter realized by Niemeyer and his contemporaries, such as Affonso Eduardo Reidy.

In 1936, at 29, Lucio Costa was appointed by the Education Minister Gustavo Capanema to design the new headquarters of the Ministry of Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro. Since Costa himself, though convinced of the required modernity, was unsure of the modern language to be used, he gathered a group of young architects (Carlos Leão, Affonso Eduardo Reidy, Jorge Moreira and Ernani Vasconcellos) to design the building. He also insisted that Le Corbusier himself should be invited as a consultant. Though Niemeyer was not initially included in the team, Costa agreed for him to join after his insistence. During the period of Le Corbusier's stay in Rio, Niemeyer was apointed to help him with the drafts, which allowed him a close contact with the Swiss master. After his departure, Niemeyer's significant changes to Corbusier's scheme impressed Lucio Costa to an extent that he progressively started to take charge of the project, of which he assumed the leadership in 1939.

The Ministry which had assumed the task of shaping the ‘novo homem, Brasileiro e moderno’ (new man, Brazilian and modern), was the first state-sponsored modernist skyscraper in the world, and of a much larger scale than anything Le Corbusier had built until then. Completed in 1943, when he was 36 years old, the building which housed the regulator and manager of Brazilian culture and cultural heritage developed the elements of what was to become recognized as Brazilian modernism. It employed local materials and techniques, like the azulejos linked to the Portuguese tradition; the revolutionized Corbusian brises-soleil, made adjustable and related to the Moorish shading devices of colonial architecture; bold colors; the tropical gardens of Roberto Burle Marx; the Imperial Palm (Roystonea oleracea), known as the Brazilian order; further allusions to the icons of the Brazilian landscape; and specially commissioned works by Brazilian artists. This building is considered by some architects as one of the most influential of the 20th century, being taken as a model on how to dialogue low- and high-rise structures (Lever House).

In 1939, at age 32, Niemeyer and Lucio Costa designed the Brazilian pavilion for the New York World's Fair (executed in collaboration with Paul Lester Wiener). Neighbouring the much larger French pavillion, the Brazilian structure contrasted with its heavy mass. Costa explained that the Brazilian Pavilion adopted a language of ‘grace and elegance’, lightness and spatial fluidity, with an open plan, curves and free walls, which he termed ‘Ionic’, contrasting it to the mainstream contemporary modernist architecture, which he termed ‘Doric’. Impressed by its avant-garde design, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia awarded Niemeyer the keys to the city of New York.

In 1937, Niemeyer was invited by a relative to design a nursery for philanthropic institution which catered for young mothers, the Obra do Berço. It would become his first finalised work. However, Niemeyer has claimed that his architecture really began in Pampulha, Minas Gerais, and as he explained in an interview, Pampulha was the starting point of this freer architecture full of curves which I still love even today. It was in fact, the beginning of Brasília....