The man who built the future. Seven decades of work from the Brazilian visionary. Now over 100 years old, Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer is still practicing - over seven decades since one of his first projects, a 1936 collaboration with Lucio Costa and Le Corbusier. A technical pioneer and one of the 20th century's most important architects, Niemeyer has designed close to 700 realized and unrealized buildings and, most notably, was the architect for the principal monuments in Brasilia, his homeland's futuristic capital city and his undisputed major masterpiece. The "New York Times" wrote on the occasion of his 100th anniversary: "In the 1940s, '50s and '60s he established himself as one of Modernism's greatest luminaries, infusing stark abstract forms with a beguiling tropical hedonism that reshaped Brazil's identity in the popular imagination and mesmerized architects around the globe." About the Series: Every book in TASCHEN's "Basic Architecture Series" features: approximately 120 images, including photographs, sketches, drawings, and floor plans; introductory essays exploring the architect's life and work, touching on family and background as well as collaborations with other architects; the most important works presented in chronological order, with descriptions of client and/or architect wishes as well as construction problems and resolutions; and an appendix including a list of complete or selected works, biography, bibliography, and a map indicating the locations of the architect's most famous buildings.

Author Biography

Philip Jodidio studied art history and economics at Harvard, and edited "Connaissance des Arts" for over 20 years. His books include TASCHEN's "Architecture Now!" series, and monographs on Tadao Ando, Norman Foster, Richard Meier, Jean Nouvel, and Zaha Hadid. He is internationally renowned as one of the most popular writers on the subject of architecture.