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). Architect from the Madrid School of Architecture (ETSAM) in 1991. He received his PhD in Architecture from ETSAM in 2004, graduating summa Cum laude with the doctoral thesis "Inventions: New York vs. Rem Koolhaas, Bernard Tschumi, Piranesi." In 1991, he received a Special Mention in the Spanish National Graduation Awards. Until 1997, he worked as an advisor to several NGOs. In 1992, he founded his architectural practice in Madrid (www.josejuanbarba.com). 

He is an architectural critic and, since 1998, Editor-in-Chief of the internationally acclaimed bilingual architecture journal METALOCUS (Spanish/English), recipient of several national and international awards.

Barba is an Associate Professor at the University of Alcalá and a member of several research groups. He has been invited to participate in numerous international forums on architecture and urbanism, including the II Forum of Mexican World Heritage Cities, Urban Development, History and Modernity, organized by the Pan-American Committee for Urban Development and Historical Heritage; the World Urban Development Forum (FMDU), held in Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico; and the International Conference on Architecture and Urbanism from the Perspective of Women Architects. He has also been invited as lecturer and guest critic at numerous national and international institutions, including the National Building Museum, Roma Tre University, Politecnico di Milano, University of Genoa, Université Pierre Mendès France Grenoble, the Madrid and Barcelona Schools of Architecture, National Autonomous University of Mexico, the Faculty of Architecture in Montevideo, the Schools of Architecture of Medellín and Ecuador, Universidad Iberoamericana, IE University, as well as the Schools of Architecture of Zaragoza, Valladolid, Málaga, Granada, Seville, and A Coruña, among others.

He has extensive professional experience in architecture, urbanism, landscape intervention, and territorial regeneration. His work has received numerous awards, including First Prize in the “Gran Vía Posible” competition for Delirious Gran Vía, Madrid; recognition for the Rivers Interpretation Centre in Zamora, awarded and exhibited at the World Architecture Festival 2008; and recognition for the Santa Bárbara Park project in Toledo. He was also awarded the Erich Degner Prize for Architecture (1995), promoted by the BBVA Foundation. His project for a Day Centre for the Elderly was included in Volume 3 of the Madrid Architecture Guide published by the Official College of Architects of Madrid (COAM) in 2007. His work has been widely published in national and international books and journals.

He served as Maître de Conférences at the Institut d’Urbanisme de Grenoble, Université Pierre Mendès France Grenoble, during the 2013–14 academic year, following his appointment through a European open competition. His work has been published internationally. He regularly serves on academic and professional juries, including the editorial competition jury for the journal Quaderns (2011), the selection committee for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Awards (2007–present), and the jury panels for EUROPAN 13 (2015–16) and TRANSFER, Zurich (2019). He was also invited to participate in the Biennale di Venezia 2016 as part of the exhibition Spaces of Exception / Spazi d’Eccezione.

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

Selected awards include:

•    “SANTIAGO AMÓN” AWARD, award for the promotion of architecture, COAM Madrid, 2000.
•    “PANAYIOTI MIXELI AWARD,” SADAS-PEA, award for the promotion of architecture, Athens, 2005.
•    “PIERRE VAGO” ICAC. International Committee of Art Critics Award, London, 2005.
•    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.