Oscar Niemeyer s-a stins din viață

Un gigant al arhitecturii secolului XX, brazilianul Oscar Niemeyer a murit cu zece zile înainte de a împlini 105 ani. Îi aducem aici un ultim omagiu celui care a redesenat imaginea lumii în care trăim, dar, a pus mai presus de orice omul. A trăit și a muncit până în ultimele clipe ale vieții sale. El, omul Oscar Niemeyer este un exemplu pentru noi.
Oscar Niemeyer, un iubitor de viață, a fost comunist.

Relevant pentru noi este următorul răspuns dintr-un interviu  publicat de cotidianul francez L'humanite. Iată ce răspunde într-un interviu marele arhitect:

HUMA: Your commitment as a communist ... Is it still the same?
NIEMEYER: I feel good about it, I’m still following the same path. I left school, coming from a bourgeois family. My grandfather was the Brazilian Minister of the Supreme Court. I understood right away that we had to change things. The path to change was the Communist Party. I joined the Party and have remained in the Party up to today, following all the ups and downs that life has imposed. When I talk about architecture, I usually say that life is more important than architecture. Architecture doesn’t change anything, life changes things much more than architecture. I think - and I keep saying this to my colleagues, to students - that to be a good architect it isn’t enough to complete your schooling. Above all, to really be an architect, to be creative, you have to know the lives of people, their misery, their suffering. The main thing is to be someone who manages to understand life, and one must understand that it is important to change the world. We are looking for coherence. Every Tuesday, we have meetings in my office with students, intellectuals, scientists, writers. We exchange ideas about philosophy, our political ideas, about the world: we want to understand life, change the lives of people, change human beings. Firstly, I am a pessimist: I think humans have a very narrow perspective, but we have to live honestly, live hand-in-hand with each other. But then, at a second level, I recognize that we have to be less pessimistic and a bit more realistic. We have to see that life is hard for people, each one with his or her own specific story. There are too many injustices. But commitment to the Communist Party provides hope, solidarity, and the realization that it is possible to struggle together for a better world.