Oscar Niemeyer was a great 20th-century Brazilian architect who taught the world how to build in a way that was at once modern and local. He gave Brazil a hugely seductive identity that was in touch with the past but also hopeful about the future.

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“One of the most depressing aspects of travel is finding that the world often looks the same in many different places. The towers of downtown Tokyo are indistinguishable from those of Frankfurt or Seattle. That’s no coincidence. Modern architecture was founded on the idea that buildings should logically look the same everywhere. The early figures of Modernism were united in their bitter opposition to any kind of ‘regionalism’, which they saw as reactionary, folkloric and plain mediocre. If bicycles, telephones and planes (all harbingers of the new age) weren’t going to be done up in a local style, why should buildings? Down with chalets, wigwams and gargoyles…”

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Produced in collaboration with:

Khyan Mansley
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