The greatest period of Niemeyer’s career would precede one of its gloomiest. After he assumed the Brazilian presidency, Kubitschek laid out his ambitions to build a new capital city for Brazil. He enlisted Lucio Costa to plan the new city, located further inland and without the heightened geography of Rio, and consulted Niemeyer about crafting Brasília’s institutional buildings. Niemeyer’s designs were to become emblematic of the Modernist utopia, one forged along egalitarian principles that would be conferred upon the city through heroic gestures, cast in concrete. Niemeyer had given form to the new heart of Brazil, and his hopeful, lofty structures speak to a humanistic dimension of Modernism long forgotten. As Niemeyer put it, “Architecture was my way of expressing my ideals: to be simple, to create a world equal to everyone, to look at people with optimism, that everyone has a gift.” The aesthetic and social responsibility of building that Niemeyer cultivated at Brasília, and the stark futurism that gave the buildings their socialist space-age aura, would inform his work throughout his career.

Additional photos and overview and Architizer link above.

Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, who designed some of the 20th Century’s most famous modernist buildings, has died just before his 105th birthday. He was still working on projects up until early this year.

Full article, obituary, and work at above BBC link.