Worlds oldest living architect: Oscar Niemeyer

Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho, or popularly known as Oscar Niemeyer is currently 104 years old and would be celebrating his 105th birthday on December this year. At 104 currently, he is the worlds oldest living architect who is still contributing to designs in his company through his sketches and explanations. He is a Brazilian architect who had worked in the field for over 75 years, specializing in international modern architecture. He is a pioneer in exploring the formal possibilities of reinforced concrete solely for their aesthetic impact. His buildings are often characterized by bring spacious and exposed, mixing volumes and empty space to create unconventional patterns. Both lauded and criticized for being a sculptor of monuments, he has been praised for being a great artist and one of the greatest architects of his generation by his supporters. 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 a beloved woman. His first work (Gustavo capanema palace with le Corbusier) came in 1936 which is now over 75 years ago, and his latest masterpiece is the Oscar Niemeyer international cultural centre in Spain on 2011. The latter is a big cultural centre which is an open square to the humankind, a place for education, culture and peace (Oscar Niemeyer). In total, he has designed well over 80 buildings or sculptures, an impressive record of his contribution to the built environment, particularly in Brazil and Europe. Two structures which he designed and dedicated to himself are the Oscar Niemeyer museum at Paran, Brazil and the international

cultural centre. The former is a museum resembling an sye-shaped tower with ramp leading to it from the reflecting pond below as well as a rectangular gallery behind. The museum features many of Niemeyers signature elements: bold geometric forms, sculptural curved volumes placed prominently to contrast with rectangular volumes, sinuous ramps for pedestrians, large areas or white painted concrete, and areas with vivid murals or paintings. The scale of his contributions to architecture is extensive and he can be considered as one of the fathers of modern architecture along with Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, and Walter Gropius. He had also won 1988 Pritzker prize, the highest honor to an architect. Loving for over a century which is seldom acquires by many others, his works and name as a great architect would be eternal.