Brasília is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District, located in the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitschek on 21 April 1960, to replace Rio de Janeiro as the national capital. Brasília is Brazil's third-most populous city after São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Among major Latin American cities, it has the highest GDP per capita.
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho, known as Oscar Niemeyer, was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was best known for his design of civic buildings for Brasília, a planned city that became Brazil's capital in 1960, as well as his collaboration with other architects on the headquarters of the United Nations in New York. His exploration of the aesthetic possibilities of reinforced concrete was highly influential in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Modern architecture, also called modernist architecture, was an architectural movement and style that was prominent in the 20th century, between the earlier Art Deco and later postmodern movements. Modern architecture was based upon new and innovative technologies of construction ; the principle functionalism ; an embrace of minimalism; and a rejection of ornament.
Lúcio Marçal Ferreira Ribeiro Lima Costa was a Brazilian architect and urban planner, best known for his plan for Brasília.
The Palácio da Alvorada is the official residence of the president of Brazil. It is located in the national capital of Brasília, on a peninsula at the margins of Paranoá Lake. The building was designed by Oscar Niemeyer and built between 1957 and 1958 in the modernist style. It has been the residence of every Brazilian president since Juscelino Kubitschek. The building is listed as a National Historic Heritage Site.
The Gustavo Capanema Palace, also known architecturally as the Ministry of Education and Health Building, is a government office building in the Centro district of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As the first modernist project in Brazil, it is historically important to the architectural development of Modernism in Brazil and has been placed on Brazil's UNESCO tentative list.
The creation of art in the geographic area now known as Brazil begins with the earliest records of its human habitation. The original inhabitants of the land, pre-Columbian Indigenous or Natives peoples, produced various forms of art; specific cultures like the Marajoara left sophisticated painted pottery. This area was colonized by Portugal in the 16th century and given the modern name of Brazil. Brazilian art is most commonly used as an umbrella term for art created in this region post Portuguese colonization.
The architecture of Mexico reflects the influences of various cultures, regions, and periods that have shaped the country's history and identity. In the pre-Columbian era, distinct styles emerged that reflected the distinct cultures of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, particularly in the architecture of Mesoamerica. During the colonial era, the region was transformed by successive styles from Europe. With the foremost style during this era being Mexican Baroque.
The Baroque in Brazil was the dominant artistic style during most of the colonial period, finding an open ground for a rich flowering. It made its appearance in the country at the beginning of the 17th century, introduced by Catholic missionaries, especially Jesuits, who went there in order to catechize and acculturate the native indigenous peoples and assist the Portuguese in the colonizing process. In the course of the Colonial period, expressed a close association between the Church and the State, but in the colony there was not a court that would serve as a patron of the arts, the elites did not bother to build palaces, or to help sponsor the profane arts, but at the end of the period, and how the religion had a strong influence on the daily lives of everyone in this group of factors derives from the vast majority of the legacy of the Brazilian Baroque period, is the sacred art: statuary, painting, and the work of carving for the decoration of churches and convents, or for private worship.
The architecture of Póvoa de Varzim, in Portugal, demonstrates a broad variety of architectural styles over its thousand years of history. 11th-century Romanesque, 16th-century Mannerism, 18th-century Baroque, late 18th-century neoclassicism, early 20th-century Portuguese modernism and late 20th- to early 21st-century contemporary architectural styles and more are all represented in Póvoa de Varzim. As a whole it represents a rich eclectic tradition and innovation shaped by the people, their beliefs and economy.
The Our Lady of Grace Cathedral also called Catedral Nossa Senhora de Belém. It is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Belém do Pará and is located in the old quarter of the city in Belém in Brazil. The cathedral is dedicated to Our Lady of Grace, and dates to the earliest settlement of the Portuguese in Belém. The first chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Grace was a temporary structure inside the Presépio Fort; it was moved to a large square in front of the fort. The current structure, the third, was built in the Baroque style, but was later modified with numerous Neoclassical architecture elements by the architect João Landi. The cathedral was listed as a historic structure by the National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute in 1940.
Anna Maria Baldo Niemeyer was a Brazilian architect, furniture designer and gallery owner. The only child of Oscar Niemeyer, she worked with her father to design the civic buildings for Brasília, focusing primarily on interior spaces and decoration. When her father decided to make furniture to harmonize his structures with the design elements, she turned her interest to furniture designing. Her two most noted designs were the initial prototype called the "Alta" and the "Rio". In her later career, she ran an art gallery in Rio, which at one time was the only gallery in the city, and assisted in the creation of the Niterói Contemporary Art Museum.
The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, or the Basilica of the Conception, is a church in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. It is affiliated with the Catholic Church and was built in 1623, making it one of the oldest parishes in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of São Salvador da Bahia. It was the first church built by the first governor-general of Brazil, Tomé de Sousa. The current structure was prefabricated in Portugal and assembled in Salvador; its construction began in 1739 and ended in the mid 19th century. The art historian Germain Bazin classifies the church as Portuguese in design, rather than part of the Bahian tradition of religious structures of the 17th and 18th century.
The architecture of Lagos is an eclectic mix of different types, styles and periods. Buildings range from traditional vernacular architecture to tropical modern architecture or a mixture. The oldest European-styled buildings date back to the 17th century. Elements of Portuguese architecture introduced by returnee ex-slaves from Brazil and the Caribbean, although present all over the city, predominates in places like: Lagos Island, Surulere and Yaba Municipalities. Colonial-styled architecture flourished during the Lagos Colony. The Lagos skyline is a mixture of modern high rise buildings, skyscrapers, dilapidated buildings and slums. Lagos has the tallest skyline in Nigeria. Skyscraper construction commenced in the 1960s. Several office and mixed-use buildings have been built by international developers and private equity firms. Modern buildings and structures have been a continuous development until date.
The Caramuru Building is an office building in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. It was designed by the architect Paulo Antunes Ribeiro (1905–1973) for Prudência Capitalização, an insurance company. Construction began on the structure in 1946 and it opened in 1951. The Caramuru Building was one of the first Modernist buildings constructed in the Northeast Region of Brazil, closely following the construction of Hotel de Bahia. It was widely recognized by the domestic and international architectural press; it was described as having a "graceful, almost abstract elegance [...] contrasted with the robust architecture of Bahia." The structure fell into disrepair but remains in the Comércio district. It is a protected structure by the state of Bahia and has provisional protected status by the by National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN).
Joaquim Maria Moreira Cardozo, known as Joaquim Cardozo, was a Brazilian structural engineer, poet, short story writer, playwright, university professor, translator, editor of art and architecture magazines, designer, illustrator, caricaturist, and art critic. He was a polyglot, knowing about fifteen languages.
The colonial architecture of Brazil is defined as the architecture carried out in the current Brazilian territory from 1500, the year of the Portuguese arrival, until its Independence, in 1822.
The Casa do Baile is an architectural landmark in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. It is part of the Pampulha Modern Ensemble, a complex of buildings constructed around Lake Pampulha in the 1940s that represents some of Niemeyer's earliest works in his distinctive modernist style utilizing curved forms. The Casa do Baile was inaugurated in 1943 as a restaurant and dance hall for popular entertainment, though it had a short lifespan in that role. After years of alternate uses, it reopened in 2002 as an architecture and design center. Its fluid curves integrating with the natural landscape have made it an icon of modern Brazilian architecture, garnering protected status at municipal, state and national levels.
The Niemeyer Building is a residential building located in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, designed by the architect Oscar Niemeyer and constructed between 1954 and 1960. It is an iconic piece of Brazilian modernistic architecture.
The Mondadori Palace is an office building located in Segrate on the outskirts of Milan, Italy. Designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, it was built between 1970 and 1975 to serve as the headquarters for Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, one of Italy's largest publishing companies.
