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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.

Oscar Niemeyer

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Oscar Niemeyer
Age: 104 †
Born: 1907
Born: December 15
Died: 2012
Died: December 5
Architect
Designer
Politician
University Teacher
Urban Planner
Writer
Rio
Oscar Niemeyer Soares
Ribeiro de Almeida Soares
Oscar Niemeyer Soares Filho
Oscard Niemeyer
Filho
Oscar Niemeyer Soares
Oskar Nimeĭer
Life
Architecture
Ambition
Structure
Audacious
Building
Structures
Support
Supporting
Important
Diminish
Work
Reduce
Always
Minimum

More quotes by Oscar Niemeyer

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The rule is the worst thing. You just want to break it.
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My work is not about form follows function, but form follows beauty or, even better, form follows feminine.
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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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When I was very little my mother said I used to draw in the air with my fingers. I needed a pencil. Once I could hold one, I have drawn every day since.
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It was the drawing that led me to architecture, the search for light and astonishing forms.
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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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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.
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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?
Oscar Niemeyer
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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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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.
Oscar Niemeyer
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It is not with architecture that one can disseminate any political ideology.
Oscar Niemeyer
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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.
Oscar Niemeyer
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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.
Oscar Niemeyer
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I am a Brazilian before I am an architect. I cannot separate the two.
Oscar Niemeyer
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We need to feel that life is important we need that fantasy so we can live a little better.
Oscar Niemeyer
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Surprise is key in all art.
Oscar Niemeyer
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Life is very fleeting. It’s important to be gentle and optimistic. We look behind and think what we’ve done in this life has been good. It was simple it was modest. Everyone creates their own story and moves on. That’s it. I don’t feel particularly important. What we create is not important. We’re very insignificant.
Oscar Niemeyer
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Humanity needs dreams to be able to survive the miseries of daily existence, even if only for an instant.
Oscar Niemeyer
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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.
Oscar Niemeyer
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Life is more important than architecture.
Oscar Niemeyer