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OSCAR NIEMEYERThe 101-Year-Old Man Who Invented Brazil’s CapitalINTERVIEW BY SANTIAGO FERNANDEZ-STELLEY PHOTO BY ANDRÉ VIEIRADRAWINGS BY OSCAR NIEMEYER TRANSLATED BY DANIELLA DINIZ AND DANILO MATZ  Oscar Niemeyer is on the infinitesimally short list of people who have designed and built an entire city. A world capital. Sure, Haussmann made Paris into the postcard background it is today and Wren rebuilt London after the Great Fire (by not building everything out of wood—good thinking!). But it’s not like they were lacking in usable models on which to base their work, considering those cities were already functioning metropolises before they got the re-up. Niemeyer, though—he took an empty patch of Brazilian countryside and, in four years (and with the layout assistance of Lucio Costa), put a hyperfunctional capital city on the face of the earth. It’s called Brasília, and it’s shaped like an airplane or a butterfly or a woman (though Niemeyer claims it’s not a woman). That was 50 years ago, and Niemeyer has been working nonstop ever since. He’s 101 years old and still designs buildings every day. He spent a few years as the president of the Brazilian Communist Party, recently got married at the sprightly age of 98, and got himself into trouble last year for trying to make some changes to Brasília. Living for a century has given him a lot of perspective, as in, “architecture-can’t-give-meaning-to-your-life” perspective. And when a guy who built an entire city from scratch tells you that nobody in this life is important, you start to fear that nothing, not a single accomplishment that you rack up, will ever mean anything to anybody, ever. Vice: Let’s start with an easy one. How did you become interested in architecture? Oscar Niemeyer: I think that drawing drove me to it. I remember when I was ten years old and I used to like to draw with my fingers in the air. My mother would ask, “What are you doing, boy?” I would say, “I’m drawing.” I could picture the drawings in the air and correct them. Now I think differently. Architecture is in my head. I am able to do a project without the use of a pencil. I can imagine the location and I can imagine the project that I want to make. I think of all the solutions. And how did you come to build Brasília? President Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, who had hired me to design the Pampulha Church in Belo Horizonte, assigned me Brasília. I remember when Juscelino decided to build Brasília. He came to my office and said, “Oscar, we did Pampulha and now we will build the new capital.” That’s how Brasília’s adventure started. An entire city was built so quickly. I knew we only had a short time, but that didn’t influence me to design simpler architecture. When I built the Alvorada Palace, for instance, I made a curved canopy and curved columns—a type of column that had never been built before. You’ve said your architecture has strived for new shapes or forms. What do you mean by that? We didn’t make the architecture that Bauhaus wanted, which would be purely functional. Architecture has to be pretty. It has to amaze to be a masterpiece. I work a lot. I have lots of work over in Europe and here, but I always try to bring beauty and amazement. And the Bauhaus philosophy was too cold for you. Architecture can’t be like Bauhaus wanted, a “habitation machine.” Architecture has to be born from nothing, have no influences. Once a very intelligent architect told me, “There’s no modern or old architecture, there’s only good and bad architecture.” Now, I don’t see architecture as something that will save the world, but I think the architect has to read, has to be informed. For instance, here in our office, we’ve had a class for five years where we have a teacher coming to talk about philosophy and the cosmos. How good it is to know things. That’s a pretty unconventional way to run an architecture firm. I’m interested in life. I think life is more important than architecture. I think what’s important is solidarity. I remember once a journalist asked me, “Oscar, what’s your favorite word?” I said, “Solidarity.” But architecture isn’t your favorite thing to discuss? When I talk about architecture, I feel like changing the subject. I’m interested in problems of life and the human being. See all articles by this contributor
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