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Brazil's star architect dies

December 6, 2012

Oscar Niemeyer, world famous Brazilian architect, has died at the age of 104. He is said to have revolutionized modern architecture.

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The Cathedral Nossa Senhora Aparecida, by Oscar Niemeyer - in Brasilia (Photo via AFP)
Image: AFP/Getty Images

Oscar Niemeyer designed 600 buildings around the world including the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park, London, the Penang State Mosque in Malaysia, and the headquarters of the French Communist Party in Paris.

But he is most famous for being the chief architect for the construction of Brazil's futuristic capital Brasilia, which was built from scratch in a remote jungle area of the country in the late 1950s. One of the most spectacular buildings there is the grand cathedral pictured above.

He was awarded the 1988 Pritzker Prize, often described as the Nobel Prize for architecture.#video#

Brazil today lost one of its geniuses. It's a day for mourning," said President Dilma Rousseff in a first reaction.

Niemeyer, who was born in Rio de Janeiro to a family of German, Portugese and Arab ancestry, passed away in a hospital in Rio on Wednesday local time, after having been treated there since November 2, for a lung infection.

His body will lie in state at the presidential palace in the capital.

rg/msh (Reuters, AFP)