Oscar Niemeyer

Hello! My name is Oscar Niemeyer, and I was an architect. I was born in a beautiful city called Rio de Janeiro in Brazil on December 15th, 1907. When I was a boy, I didn't play with toys as much as I loved to draw. I would trace shapes in the air with my finger, imagining all the wonderful buildings I could create. The world around me was full of inspiration, especially the beautiful curves of the mountains and rivers in my country.

When I grew up, I went to school to learn how to design buildings. I discovered a special material called reinforced concrete. It was super strong, but I could make it flow into amazing, curvy shapes. I thought buildings should be more than just straight lines and boxes. I wanted to make them look like giant, beautiful sculptures that people could walk inside! In the 1940s, I designed a group of buildings in a place called Pampulha that looked like they were dancing.

My biggest adventure started in 1956. The president of Brazil, Juscelino Kubitschek, asked me to help build a whole new capital city for our country! We named it Brasília. My friend, Lúcia Costa, planned the city's map, and I got to design all the most important buildings. I designed a government building that looked like two big bowls and a cathedral that reached up to the sky like a flower opening its petals. I wanted the city to look like it came from the future. I even got to help design the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, a place where people from all over the world work together.

I kept designing buildings my entire life because I loved creating new and surprising shapes for people to enjoy. I lived to be 104 years old. Today, my buildings in Brasília and all over the world are famous. People visit them to see how concrete can bend and curve in beautiful ways. I hope my work inspires you to look at the world differently and use your imagination to create something wonderful.