Meeting Oscar Niemeyer Today is a very special day.

We are on our way to meet the legendary architect and artist Oscar Niemeyer in his office in the upmarket Rio de Janeiro neighbourhood of Copacabana. Located on the Avenida Atlantica, it has stunning views of the bay and the long oceanfront boulevard. Inside, we get a glimpse of how the mind of a creative genius works. The walls are covered with hasty sketches, detailed drawings and photos of completed projects; the desks are overflowing with papers and notebooks, and there are books everywhere. Niemeyer receives us in his library, surrounded by his books, and starts talking about Rio, which is for him all about the Brazilian soul and youth. Le Corbusier once said that I had Rios mountains in my eyes, he says. I laughed. While Niemeyer celebrated his 100th birthday in 2007, his mind remains as sharp as a knife and his spirit is young. He is working on all kinds of projects in Brazil and beyond, and even got married in 2007. I mention that it is a great honour for us to meet him, and he replies: I am very happy to meet you too, I CoolBrands that young people are interested in my work and that I can am happy Based on an interview with Maarten Schfer and Anouk transfer my knowledge and experience to the next generations. Pappers Besides being an architect and an artist, he is also an idealist. He paid a high price for his support of communism, and was forced into exile during the military dictatorship in Brazil in the 1960s and 70s. Niemeyer was unhappy to be so far from his beloved home country, but working in Paris was a great boost to his international career.

CoolBrands House 2011 Based on an interview with Maarten Schfer and Anouk Pappers

We ask him what his favourite building is. Tough question there are many that I like and several that I dont like so much anymore. But let me turn the question around: what is your favourite building? We visited the modern art museum that you designed in Niteri during one of our previous visits to Rio and loved it. What do you think? Niteri was easy to design the site is so beautiful. There is a single central support with the architecture rising up around it, like a flower. Then the ramp, inviting people to visit the museum, a gentle curving walk through the architecture and the beautiful landscape, running under the building. I dont see my architecture as an ideal solution but, modestly, as my architecture. It is not the 90-degree angle that attracts me, nor 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. What was it like to work on creating the new Brazilian capital, Brasilia? It was a three-hour flight from Rio to Brasilia, which meant I had to live there for the duration of the project. I confess I did not have a good impression of the site. Farremoved from everything, it was an abandoned, empty land. When I moved to Brasilia, I invited some friends along a doctor, two journalists and four other comrades who were not into architecture, who were funny and intelligent because I didnt want to spend the nights talking about architecture. an interview with Maarten Schfer and Anouk CoolBrands Based on
Pappers

The most important thing for me is not architecture, but family, friends and this unfair world that we need to change. CoolBrands House 2011 Based on an interview with Maarten Schfer and Anouk Pappers