Oscar Niemeyer Quotes
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I pick up my pen. It flows. A building appears. There it is. There is nothing more to say.
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The artistic capability of reinforced concrete is so fantastic - that is the way to go.
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I had some good opportunities. I was lucky to have had the chance to do things differently. Architecture is about surprise.
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Turning 102 is crap, and there is nothing to commemorate.
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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.
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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
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Today, architecture is invention. It isn't enough to just be rational - It must also be beautiful.
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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.
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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.
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Of course, I have given my engineers some headaches over the years, but they go with me. I have always wanted my buildings to be as light as possible, to touch the ground gently, to swoop and soar, and to surprise.
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I like talking to priests, to Catholics. Everyone has their beliefs.
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What attracts me are free and sensual curves. The curves we find in mountains, in the waves of the sea, in the body of the woman we love.
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A church is something very beautiful. It is nice when people feel happy in it. But I am not a religious man. Look at us, and then at the infinity of space. We are rather small insignificant creatures, wouldn’t you say?
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I think of myself as no more than 60. What I could do at 60, I can still do now.
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I am a Brazilian before I am an architect. I cannot separate the two.
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My architecture is easy to understand. And enjoy. I hope it also is hard to forget.
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Right angles don't attract me. Nor straight, hard and inflexible lines created by man.
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There is no reason to design buildings that are more basic and rectilinear, because with concrete you can cover almost any space.
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When you have a large space to conquer, the curve is the natural solution.
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Life is more important than architecture.
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I enter my studio at 9 a.m. I have lunch here, I return right away to my work and I go out to dinner at 8 p.m. My daily tasks vary very much.
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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.
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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.
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The challenge of a cathedral is very good for architectural inventiveness.
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For me beauty is valued more than anything - the beauty that is manifest in a curved line or in an act of creativity.
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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.
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Sometimes I lose a whole morning waiting on journalists and other people who look for me. But I always find some time for reading, talking to my friends and feeling what is happening in this world.
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Camus says in 'The Stranger' that reason is the enemy of imagination. Sometimes you have to put reason aside and make something beautiful.
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The rule is the worst thing. You just want to break it.
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When students leave college, they are like children who know nothing about the problems of life, and don't have a political stance.
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