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Saturday 25 May 2013

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In pictures: Oscar Niemeyer

Oscar Niemeyer, a towering patriarch of modern architecture who shaped the look of modern Brazil and whose inventive, curved designs left their mark on cities worldwide, has died. He was 104. Photo: Getty Images
Niemeyer had been battling kidney and stomach ailments in a Rio de Janeiro hospital since early November. His death was the result of a lung infection developed this week, the hospital said, little more than a week before he would have turned 105. Photo: AP
Starting in the 1930s, Niemeyer's career spanned nine decades. His distinctive glass and white-concrete buildings include such landmarks as the U.N. Secretariat in New York, the Communist Party headquarters in Paris and the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Brasilia (pictured). Photo: Getty Images
He won the 1988 Pritzker Architecture Prize, considered the Nobel Prize of Architecture for the Brasilia cathedral. Its Crown of Thorns cupola fills the church with light and a sense of soaring grandeur even though most of the building is underground. Photo: Reuters
In his home city of Rio de Janeiro, Niemeyer's many projects include the Sambadrome stadium for Carnival parades. Perched across the bay from Rio is the flying saucer he designed for the Niteroi Museum of Contemporary Art (above). Photo: Reuters
It was one of dozens of public structures he designed for Brazil's made-to-order capital, a city that helped define space-age style. Above, the government Esplanade of Ministries in Brasilia. The boulevard features some of Oscar Niemeyer's most famous works. To the left is one of his most recent design, the Republic Museum. Photo: AP
President Dilma Rousseff (above left), whose office sits among the landmark buildings Niemeyer designed for the modernist capital city of Brasilia, paid tribute by calling him a revolutionary, the mentor of a new architecture, beautiful, logical, and, as he himself defined it, inventive. Photo: Reuters
Niteroi Popular Theatre in Niteroi
The collection of government buildings in Brasilia, though, remain his most monumental and enduring achievement. Built from scratch in a wild and nearly uninhabited part of Brazil's remote central plateau in just four years, it opened in 1960. Above, The National Congress in Brasilia.
Niemeyer was a pioneer in the use of reinforced concrete to produce soaring, curvaceous forms. Above, the ramp of Brasilia's National Museum inaugurated in 2007. Photo: Getty Images
An ardent communist who continued working from his Copacabana beach penthouse apartment in Rio until days before his death, Niemeyer became a national icon ranking alongside Bossa Nova pioneer Tom Jobim and soccer legend Pelé (left). Photo: Reuters
Oscar Niemeyer smokes a cigar during his 100th birthday celebration in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photo: AP
Oscar Niemeyer looking towards Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro. Photo: Reuters
The Ibirapuera Auditorium in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Photo: AP
Sede da Procuradoria Geral da República by Oscar Niemeyer
Copan, Latin America's largest apartment building with some 1,600 units in Sao Paulo designed in 1951 by Oscar Niemeyer
Copan, Latin America's largest apartment building with some 1,600 units in Sao Paulo designed in 1951 by Oscar Niemeyer
The Palacio da Alvorada, or Palace of Dawn, the official residence of Brazilian presidents in Brasilia. Photo: AP
The Planalto Palace, designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer in Brasilia. Photo: Reuters
The Brazilian National Congress in Brasilia designed by Oscar Niemeyer. Photo: Reuters
The French Communist Party's headquarters, designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and located at the Place du Colonel Fabien in Paris. Photo: Getty Images
The viewing point (R) and the auditorium (L) of the Niemeyer Centre in Aviles, northern Spain. The Niemeyer Centre is the only piece of work created by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer to be built in Spain
The Oscar Niemeyer International Cultural Centre during its official presentation to the press, in Aviles, Asturias, northern Spain
The sun is seen from the monument The Pantheon of the Fatherland and Freedom (Panteao da Patria e da Liberdade Tancredo Neves), designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, in Brasilia. Niemeyer, a towering patriarch of modern architecture who shaped the look of modern Brazil and whose inventive, curved designs left their mark on cities worldwide, died late on Wednesday. He was 104. Photo: Reuters

The man who shaped the look of modern Brazil

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