Oscar Niemeyer is a Brazilian architect who mainly use reinforced concrete for his buildings. He uses this because he likes curves and it is relatively easy to create interesting shapes in concrete. He has designed many buildings all over Brazil and a few internationally, most of which have a different design compared to most buildings. There is a museum about him in Curitiba, which I went to. There was a quote written on a wall there which summarises his style quite well:
"It is not the right angle that attracts me, nor the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. What attracts me is the free and sensual curve - the curve that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuous course of its rivers, in the body of the beloved woman." - Oscar Niemeyer
I looked up the quote on internet now as well, just to make sure that I got it right. Then I discovered a funny thing, in all places I found this translated quote, it is as above. However, in Portuguese there is one more line (my translation!):
"The curves of the whole universe, Einstein's curved universe."
Why would this part be removed in the English translation?!
The museum itself was designed by Niemeyer in the shape of an eye.
There were several exhibitions in the museum. My favourite piece was the map above. There were also a lot of old books with maps and paintings. Below is a picture of a beach which now is in central Rio de Janeiro.
The picture above was taken in a corridor of the museum.
The church in the picture below was designed by Niemeyer and is located next to a lake in Belo Horizonte.
No comments:
Post a Comment