After complications from a previous kidney condition   Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer has passed away at Rio de Janeiro’s Samaritano Hospital.

For 104 years, Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares (December 15, 1907 – December 5, 2012) lived a life of “intensity.” Born in Rio de Janeiro, he is best known for helping to design the United Nations Headquarters in New York in 1947 and for designing much of the city of Brasilia. As he described his style:  “I consciously ignored the highly praised right angle and the rational architecture of T-squares and triangles in order to wholeheartedly enter the world of curves…” He received the Pritzker Prize in 1988.

Niemeyer was one of those few architects who is recognized and admired by people from all walks of life, especially by those in his native Brazil, where he is considered an icon. Indeed, always motivated to design for his fellow man, Niemeyer was a Brazilian first, and an architect second.

In Niemeyer’s words: “It is important that the architect think not only of architecture but of how architecture can solve the problems of the world. 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.”

More about the legacy of the Master of Brazilian Architecture:

• AD Interviews: Oscar Niemeyer
• Infographic: Oscar Niemeyer’s timeline
• Oscar Niemeyer Complete Works
• Tribute to Oscar Niemeyer – by Lord Norman Foster
• Oscar Niemeyer, My Dear Old Friend – by Vinicius de Moraes
• Video: Niemeyer Cultural Center
• Niemeyer’s Sambadrome
• Cathedral of Brasilia by Oscar Niemeyer
• “Tranquilo com a vida”, listen to song composed Oscar Niemeyer

Vinicius de Moraes, a Bossa Nova legend (and composer of “The Girl from Ipanema”), met Oscar Niemeyer at the Café Vermelhinho in Rio de Janeiro in the 1940s. They first worked together on de Moraes’ play, “Orpheus of Conceição,” in 1956 (Niemeyer designed the set). In light of Oscar’s death, we bring you this short text, translated from the original Portugese, that Vinicius wrote in the 60s about his dear friend, Oscar.

There are few testimonials I have read that are as exciting as Oscar Niemeyer’s account of his experience in Brasília. ¹  For those who know only the architect, the article could pass as a self-serving defense – the justified revenge of a father who, despite his gentle temperment, fought for his child[, his Brasilia - a city] at the mercy of the world. But for those who know the man, the article takes on even more dramatic proportions. For Oscar is not only the opposite of an activist, he’s one of the most anti-self-promotional beings I’ve met in my life.

His modesty isn’t, as it so often is, a shameful form of vanity. It has nothing to do with his down-to-earth expertise, which Oscar has thanks to his professional value and possibilities. It is the modesty of a creator truly integrated with life, who knows that there is no time to lose, that we need to build beauty and happiness into the world, because the individual is fragile and precarious. This poignant sentiment, of the fragility and precariousness of things, plays in Oscar in a higher key (only further highlighting the dignity of this man and artist); it’s never been a self-serving sentiment, but one for mankind in general, for whom he hopes to make a better future.

Don’t believe the rumors! Despite Oscar Niemeyer’s age and three recent hospitalizations, the legendary Brazilian architect is in full recovery after being admitted to the Samaritan Hospital in Rio de Janeiro for dehydration and renal complications last week.

Niemeyer’s doctor, Fernando Gjorup responded to the rumors by stating: “Risk of death? In no time was it considered. Of course the hospitalization of a patient of his age is serious, but we did not think about that.”

Even at 104 years old and from a hospital bed, Niemeyer remains active with his work. Vera Lucia Niemeyer, Niemeyer’s wife, stated: “He has several projects and wants to know about the progress of each.”

Story via Publico