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MANILA, Philippines - Who is the Brazilian architect whose many notable works include public buildings designed for the city of Brasilia, the United Nations headquarters in New York, and the iconic Rio chair?
He was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1907 and spent his youth as a typical young carioca of his time: bohemian and relatively unconcerned with his future.
After completing his secondary education, he started to work in his father’s typographicy house and entered the Escola de Belas Artes, where he graduated as an engineer architect in 1934.
He then worked at the architecture studio of Lucio Costa and Carlos Leio. One of his first projects was the new headquarters of the Ministry of Education and Public Health in Rio de Janeiro.
In 1939, he assumed the leadership of a team of architects with Le Corbusier acting as a consultant, responsible for the implementation of the ministry’s task of shaping the novo homem, Brasileiro e moderno (new man, Brazilian and modern).
This resulted in the building of the first state-sponsored modernist skyscraper which, when completed in 1943, housed the regulator and manager of Brazilian culture and cultural heritage. The building, which was renamed Palacio Gustavo Capanema in 1985, has become one of the best examples of Brazilian modernism.
By mid-20th century, Brazilian architectural modernism had been recognized as the first national style in modern architecture by Reyner Bahram.
In 1940, he met Juscelino Kubitschek, who was the mayor of Belo Broizonte, who wanted to develop a new suburb to the north of the city called Pampulha. Kubitschek commissioned him to design a series of buildings known as the Pampulha Complex, which offered him to opportunity to “challenge the monotony of contemporary architecture. This protest arose from the environment from which I lived, with its white beaches, its huge mountains, its baroque churches, and the beautiful suntanned women.”
In 1947, his worldwide recognition was confirmed when he became part of the international team working on the design of the United Nations Headquarters in New York. When Kubitschek became president of Brazil in 1936, he made the architect part of his most audacious scheme: to build a new capital for the country — Brasilia.
He organized a competition for the layout of Brasilia, and would later design many of the buildings.
These included the Palacio da Alvorada, the residence of the president; the National Congress of Brazil, the Cathedral of Brasilia; diverse ministries and residential buildings. New concepts in city planning were applied in Brasilia: streets without transit, buildings floating off the ground supported by columns, and allowing the space underneath to be free and integrated with nature.
While living in exile in Paris because of his leftist affiliation, he began designing furniture, best known of which was the easy chair and ottoman made of bent steel and leather. In 1978, this chair and other designs, including the iconic Rio chair, were produced first by the Japanese company Tendo and later by Tendo Brasilena. Like much of his architecture, his furniture designs were meant to evoke the beauty of Brazil, with curves mimicking the female form and the hills of Rio de Janeiro.
His other notable works are the Memorial to Juscelino Kubitschek, the Pantheon, and the Latin-American Memorial, the latter being a sculpture representing the wounded hand of Jesus, whose wound bleeds in the shape of Central and South America.
In 1988, he was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize, and on his 100th birthday, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded him the Order of Friendship.
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Last week’s question: Who is the English chef and television personality who with her basic cooking is the UK’s best-selling cookery with more than 18 million sold?
Answer: Delia Smith
Winner: Wally D. Agbuhos
Sta. Maria, Bulacan
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