Life is more important than architecture.
Oscar NiemeyerRead
Today, architecture is invention. It isn't enough to just be rational - It must also be beautiful.
Interpretation
Architecture combines practicality with aesthetics, emphasizing that it should be both functional and beautiful.
Oscar Niemeyer's quote expresses the idea that modern architecture transcends mere functionality; it must also evoke beauty and creativity. He suggests that rational design alone falls short of true artistry, and that invention in architecture should harmoniously blend purpose with aesthetic appeal, reflecting the importance of innovation in creating spaces that inspire and elevate the human experience.
In practice
In a lecture on architectural design, you could illustrate the blend of beauty and functionality with Niemeyer's quote.
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 try to stick with things that I can sing with honesty.
I'm lucky enough to be able to make films and so I don't need a psychiatrist. I can sort out my fears and all those things with my work. That's an enormous privilege. That's the privilege of all artists, to be able to sort out their unhappiness and their neuroses in order to create something.
To hell with reality! I want to die in music, not in reason or in prose. People don't deserve the restraint we show by not going into delirium in front of them. To hell with them!
My elaboration of the story always conforms to the reality at its source. It is always close to the world, the life, the reality it describes. No matter where I go, Iβm still holding up a mirror.
As I listen to the silence, I learn that my feelings about art and my feelings about the Creator of the Universe are inseparable. To try to talk about art and about Christianity is for me one and the same thing, and it means attempting to share the meaning of my life, what gives it, for me, its tragedy and its glory.
The opportunity to create a small world between two pieces of cardboard, where time exists yet stands still, where people talk and I tell them what to say, is exciting and rewarding.
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