Life is more important than architecture.
Oscar NiemeyerRead
There is no reason to design buildings that are more basic and rectilinear, because with concrete you can cover almost any space.
Interpretation
Oscar Niemeyer advocates for architectural creativity using concrete.
In this quote, Oscar Niemeyer emphasizes the limitless possibilities of concrete in architectural design. He suggests that there is no need to conform to simplistic and rigid structures when concrete allows for innovative and fluid forms, encouraging architects to explore creative boundaries in their designs.
In practice
In a presentation about modern architecture, one could use this quote to illustrate the potential of concrete in design.
Life is more important than architecture.
I deliberately disregarded the right angle and rationalist architecture designed with ruler and square to boldly enter the world of curves and straight lines offered by reinforced concrete... This deliberate protest arose from the environment in which I lived, with its white beaches, its huge mountains, its old baroque churches, and the beautiful suntanned women.
We need to feel that life is important; we need that fantasy so we can live a little better.
Here, then, is what I wanted to tell you of my architecture. I created it with courage and idealism, but also with an awareness of the fact that what is important is life, friends and attempting to make this unjust world a better place in which to live.
When you have a large space to conquer, the curve is the natural solution.
I was attracted by the curve β the liberated, sensual curve suggested by the possibilities of new technology yet so often recalled in venerable old baroque churches.
I love theatre - it's where I started - and I've directed a play myself. I'm not sure if I want to direct a film, but certainly, as an actress, I'm always thinking, 'Surely this must be my last film.'
My parents said, Oh, he's going to be a director someday. I wanted to be an actor.
Create, and be true to yourself, and depend only on your own good taste.
There's always been a separation between fashion and what I call my 'deeper' work. Fashion is where I make my living. I'm not knocking it. It's a pleasure to make a living that way. It's pleasure and then there's the deeper pleasure of doing my portraits. It's not important what I consider myself to be, but I consider myself to be a portrait photographer.
What I need to write well is a combination of heat, light and solitude.
Bad Gardens copy, good gardens create, great gardens transcend. What all great gardens have in common are their ability to pull the sensitive viewer out of him or herself and into the garden, so completely that the separate self-sense disappears entirely, and at least for a brief moment one is ushered into a nondual and timeless awareness. A great garden, in other words, is mystical no matter what its actual content.
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