CELEBRATING 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF BRASILIA

Oscar Niemeyer. Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho was born on December 15, 1907, in the hillside neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and died on December 5, 2012, at the age of 104, in his hometown (Rio de Janeiro). He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts there. Niemeyer's Architecture was conceived as a lyrical sculpture, expanded on the principles and innovations of Le Corbusier to become a kind of free-form sculpture.

Niemeyer studied at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and after graduating, he worked at his father's printing house and as a draftsman for different local architectural firms. In the 1930s, together with Lúcio Costa, he designed the Palácio Gustavo Capanema in Rio de Janeiro, and in 1938-39 he designed the Brazilian pavilion for the New York World's Fair also in collaboration with Lucio Costa.

His successful career began flourishing with his involvement with the Ministry of Education and Health (1945), in Rio de Janeiro. Niemeyer's teacher, Lucio Costa, architect, urban planner and recognized pioneer of modern architecture in Brazil, led a group of young architects who collaborated with Le Corbusier to design the building, that became a landmark of Brazilian modern architecture. It was while Niemeyer was working on this project, that he met the mayor of Brazil's richest state, Juscelino Kubitschek, who would later become the President of Brazil. As President, he appointed Niemeyer in 1956 as the chief architect of Brasilia, the new capital of Brazil, his proposals complementing Lucio Costa's general plans. Projects for many buildings in Brasilia would occupy much of his time for many years.

Niemeyer's first major project was a series of buildings for Pampulha, a planned suburb north of Belo Horizonte. His work, especially on the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, received critical acclaim and attracted international attention. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Niemeyer became one of Brazil's most prolific architects, working both domestically and abroad. This included the design of the Edifício Copan (a large residential building in Sao Paulo) and a collaboration with Le Corbusier (and others) on the United Nations Headquarters, which led to invitations to teach at Yale University and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

"As an architect," he said, "my concern in Brasilia was to find a structural solution that would characterize the architecture of the city. So I gave my best to the structures, trying to make them different with their narrow columns, so narrow that the palaces seem to barely touch the ground. And I established the difference of the facades, creating an empty space through which, when I leaned over my work table, I saw myself walking, imagining their shapes and the different points of view they would provoke.»

Internationally, he collaborated with Le Corbusier again on the design for the United Nations Headquarters (1947-53) in New York, contributing significantly to the siting and final design of the buildings. His residence (1953) in Rio de Janeiro has become a landmark. In the 1950s, he designed an Aeronautical Research Center near Sao Paulo. In Europe, he undertook an office building for Renault and the Communist Party Headquarters (1965) both in Paris, a cultural centre for Le Havre (1972), and in Italy, the Mondadori Editorial Office (1968) in Milan and the FATA Office Building (1979) in Turin. In Algiers, he designed the Zoological Gardens, the University of Constantine, and the Foreign Office.

José Juan Barba (1964) is an architect, graduated from ETSA Madrid (1991), and holds a Doctorate in Architecture from ETSA Madrid, awarded Cum laude for his thesis Inventions: New York vs. Rem Koolhaas, Bernard Tschumi, Piranesi (2004). He received a special mention in the National Awards for Completion of Studies (1991) and served as an advisor to various NGOs until 1997. He founded his studio in Madrid in 1992 (www.josejuanbarba.com). 

Barba is an architecture critic and has been the director of METALOCUS magazine since 1999. Since 1998, he has directed the International Architecture Magazine METALOCUS (bilingual, Spanish/English), which has been recognized with multiple national and international awards.

He is a Full Professor at the University of Alcalá, leading the project line of the Habilitation Master's Architecture and City, responsible for several courses in Theory and Criticism, heading the Urban Planning area of the Department of Architecture, and participating in the research group Architecture, History, City, and Landscape at UAH. He has been invited to numerous architecture and urbanism forums, including the II Forum of Mexican Cities World Heritage: Urban Development, History, and Modernity, organized by the Pan-American Committee for Urban Development and Historical Heritage, and the World Urban Development Forum (FMDU) in Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico. He has also participated in the International Architecture and Urbanism Conferences from the perspective of women architects, and has lectured at prestigious national and international universities, including the National Building Museum (Washington, DC), Roma TRE, Politecnico di Milano, UPMF Grenoble, ETSA Madrid, ETSA Barcelona, University of Thessaly (Volos), UNAM Mexico, the Faculty of Architecture Montevideo, schools of architecture in Medellín, Ecuador, Alicante, Málaga, Granada, Seville, A Coruña, Universidad Iberoamericana Mexico, IE School, Universidad Europea Madrid, UCJC Madrid, and ESARQ-UIC Barcelona.

Barba has extensive professional experience in architecture, urban planning, landscape design, and territorial recovery. He has received numerous awards, including the First Prize for Gran Vía Posible for Delirious Gran Vía (Madrid), the River Interpretation Center (Zamora), exhibited at the World Architecture Festival (Barcelona 2008), Santa Bárbara Park (Toledo), the Erich Degner Architecture Prize 1995 promoted by the BBVA Foundation, and his Day Care Center for the Elderly project, featured in Volume 3 of the COAM Madrid Architecture Guide (2007). His work has been published in numerous national and international books and magazines.

He was also Maître de Conférences at IUG-UPMF Grenoble (2013–14), in a position obtained through a European competition. His work has been published internationally. He regularly serves on academic juries, including the editorial competition of Quaderns magazine (2011), as a selector for the Mies van der Rohe Awards (2007–2026), as juror for EUROPAN13 Spain (2015–16), TRANSFER in Zurich (2019), and was invited to participate in the Venice Biennale 2016 as part of the exhibition Spaces of Exception / Spazi d’Eccezione.

He has published several books, including The Dark Line. michele&miquel, dA Vision Design (2024), CONGRESO ANYWAY. The City of Cities (2020), #Positions (2016), and Inventions: New York vs. Rem Koolhaas, Bernard Tschumi, Piranesi (2015). He has contributed to other publications such as Public Space Gran Vía. The Tourism City (2020), Spaces of Exception / Spazi d’Eccezione (2016), La mansana de la discordia (2015), and Contemporary Architecture of Japan: New Territories (2015), as well as chapters in numerous books including Architects: A Professional Challenge (2009), 21st Century Architectures (2007), Ruta de la Plata, New Conquerors of Space (2019), and The Tourism City (2020).

Selected awards include:

- “PIERRE VAGO” ICAC. International Committee of Art Critics Award, London, 2005
- “PANAYIOTI MIXELI AWARD,” SADAS-PEA, award for the promotion of architecture, Athens, 2005
- “SANTIAGO AMÓN” AWARD, award for the promotion of architecture, COAM Madrid, 2000
- FAD Award 07, Ephemeral Interventions, First Prize, M.C. Escher Exhibition, Arquin-FAD, Barcelona, 2007
- World Architecture Festival, Center for Research and Interpretation of the Rivers, Tera, Esla, and Órbigo, Finalist, Barcelona, 2008
- Gran Vía Posible, First Prize, Delirious Gran Vía, Madrid, 2010
- Reform of the Río Segura Surroundings, Award, Murcia, 2010