Niemeyer’s ability to land large-scale work in his home country before and after his lengthy Paris relocation speak not only to his durable preeminence but also Brazil’s waves of civic gigantism, its enthusiasm for Modernism, and the difficult political and economic currents it has constantly had to surmount. There are ironies involved in Niemeyer’s success: for an outspoken leftist he was most often reliant on elites for work, whether of the left or the less strident right. And it was unusual that so many were happy to hire him, including many who didn’t share his politics—a reflection of unusual open-mindedness over a remarkably sustained period.
Modernism in the United States most often constituted poles of the built environment: high-profile corporate and civic commissions at the top and social housing at the bottom with little in the middle. Brazil is different, with Modernism constituting the style of a vast amount of construction, including large numbers of homes essentially built by their residents. To achieve the summit like Niemeyer was not to design a few buildings that stand radically apart from traditionalism, but to build the best of a very common style. [...]
Fernando Lara, Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin and author of several books on Brazilian Modernism told CityLab of the trend, “I think Brazilian society, especially the Brazilian government elites have always had the sense we need to build at the scale of our country—huge complexes.” This size has often been a source of vast challenges, but it does generate large dreams.[...]
Another trouble is that if the complex was a gesture of connection to Latin America it didn’t try particularly hard to connect to its surrounding neighborhood. It’s almost entirely fenced off and isn’t even easily accessible from the adjacent train station. It’s also remarkably barren of trees or shade. Much of this may be accounted for by his age. Niemeyer in his late 70s seems to have simply delegated more work to his assistants. Lara notes that Niemeyer, ironically, had become a brand. “Politicians of all ideological spectrums wanted to have a Niemeyer; they wanted the brand and they wanted to bypass the law for government commissions. Construction companies were very happy because Niemeyer was very expensive, they could charge whatever they wanted.”
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