Oscar Niemeyer Quotes About Architecture

Quotes about: Architecture

• Architecture is invention.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Architecture, Invention

  "Celebrating Niemeyer, Brazil's Modernist Master". "All Things Considered", www.npr.org. November 12, 2010.

• Here, then, is what I wanted to tell you of my architecture. I created it with courage and idealism, but also with an awareness of the fact that what is important is life, friends and attempting to make this unjust world a better place in which to live.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Badass, Bad Ass, Important

  "The Curves of Time: The Memoirs of Oscar Niemeyer". Book by Oscar Niemeyer, 1998.

• We hated Bauhaus. It was a bad time in architecture. They just didn’t have any talent. All they had were rules. Even for knives and forks they created rules. Picasso would never have accepted rules. The house is like a machine? No! The mechanical is ugly. The rule is the worst thing. You just want to break it.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Knives, House, Machines

  "Why Oscar Niemeyer is king of curves" by Tom Dyckhoff, www.thetimes.co.uk. December 12, 2007.

• 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. I don’t want anything but general happiness. Why is that bad?

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Simple, People, Optimism

  "Why Oscar Niemeyer is king of curves" by Tom Dyckhoff, www.thetimes.co.uk. December 12, 2007.

• I had some good opportunities. I was lucky to have had the chance to do things differently. Architecture is about surprise.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Opportunity, Lucky, Chance

  "Architect of optimism". Interview with Angel Gurria-Quintana, www.ft.com. April 13, 2007.

• The architect's role is to fight for a better world, where he can produce an architecture that serves everyone and not just a group of privileged people.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Fighting, People, Groups

• Architecture will always express the technical and social progress of the country in which it is carried out. If we wish to give it the human content that it lacks, we must participate in the political struggle.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Country, Struggle, Giving

  "Oscar Niemeyer, Architect Who Gave Brasi­lia Its Flair, Dies at 104" by Nicolai Ouroussoff, www.nytimes.com. December 5, 2012.

• My ambition has always been to reduce a building's support to a minimum. The more we diminish supporting structures, the more audacious and important the architecture is. That has been my life's work.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Ambition, Support, Important

  "Architect of Optimism". Interview with Angel Gurria-Quintana, www.ft.com. April 13, 2007.

• It is not with architecture that one can disseminate any political ideology.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Political, Architecture, Ideology

  "Oscar Niemeyer Talks About Brasilia, Communism, Regrets". Interview with Michael Luongo, www.bloomberg.com. December 7, 2012.

• It was the drawing that led me to architecture, the search for light and astonishing forms.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Light, Drawing, Architecture

  "Oscar Niemeyer Talks About Brasilia, Communism, Regrets". Interview with Michael Luongo, www.bloomberg.com. December 7, 2012.

• In architecture it isn't enough to just have the right building that works well. It can also be beautiful. It can also be different. It can create surprise. And surprise is the main thing in a work of art. [] I like and respect Brasí­lia very much. It is a simple city, a rational one. I always defend the urban design of Brasí­lia

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Beautiful, Art, Simple

• Architecture is my work, and Ive spent my whole life at a drawing board, but life is more important than architecture. What matters is to improve human beings.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  What Matters, Drawing, Important

• Life is more important than architecture.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Important, Architecture, Life Is

• I have always accepted and respected all other schools of architecture, from the chill and elemental structures of Mies van der Rohe to the imagination and delirium of Gaudi. I must design what pleases me in a way that is naturally linked to my roots and the country of my origin.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Country, School, Please Me

  Oscar Niemeyer's acceptance speech for Pritzker Architecture Prize, 1988.

• I deliberately disregarded the right angle and rationalist architecture designed with ruler and square to boldly enter the world of curves and straight lines offered by reinforced concrete... This deliberate protest arose from the environment in which I lived, with its white beaches, its huge mountains, its old baroque churches, and the beautiful suntanned women.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Beautiful, Beach, Squares

  "The Curves of Time: The Memoirs of Oscar Niemeyer". Book by Oscar Niemeyer, 1998.

• My architecture is easy to understand. And enjoy. I hope it also is hard to forget.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Architecture, Forget, Easy

• Architecture does not change anything. It's always on the side of the wealthy. The important thing is to believe that it can make life better.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Believe, Important, Doe

• I search for surprise in my architecture. A work of art should cause the emotion of newness.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Art, Causes, Emotion

  "Oscar Niemeyer, architect of Brazil's capital, dies aged 104" by Jonathan Watts, www.theguardian.com. December 5, 2012.

• Today, architecture is invention. It isn't enough to just be rational - It must also be beautiful.

  Oscar Niemeyer

  Beautiful, Today, Architecture

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