Oscar Niemeyer
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2003
Hyde Park, London
"My idea was to keep this project different, free and audacious. That is what I prefer".
Oscar Niemeyer
Image courtesy Serpentine Gallery
The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2003, now under construction in Hyde Park, is designed by Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer.
The pavilion is a temporary structure erected for special events on the gallery's lawn from June to September.
This is the first structure in Britain by the 95-year-old Brazilian architect who designed Brasilia; his country's capital city.
Photo: Ludwig Abache
Throughout the 1950s Niemeyer designed groundbreaking public and corporate buildings in Brazil and, in 1958, became chief architect of Nova Cap, the organization that created Brasilia. Two of his buildings for the city, the Congresso and the Catedral Metropolitana, brought him international acclaim.
In exile in France following the 1964 military coup, he designed the headquarters of the French Communist Party as well as two universities in Algeria and several important buildings in Italy. Niemeyer returned to Brazil after democracy was restored in 1989.
Among many other he received architecture's most prestigious award, the Pritzker Prize, in 1988.
As with previous years, the pavilion will be dismantled and sold at the end of the summer. Previous pavilion designers include Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind and Toyo Ito.
Photo: 0lll - ludwig abache & carolin hinne
Follow the construction of the Pavilion
Oscar Niemeyer
A Legend of Modernism
Brasilia
From the Environmental Communications Archives
May 12, 2003
Oscar Niemeyer arcspace features