Oscar Niemeyer, the best known Brazilian architect, would have been 105 on December 15, 2012. He didn’t make it, dying on Dec 5th. It’s about the only deadline he didn’t meet. I have personally sought out most of his buildings in Rio, Brasília and elsewhere, and have been mightily impressed by his vision and style. […]
The Brazilian flag
The Brazilian flag has featured a lot in London recently, what with the Olympics, the Paralympics and the choice of Rio as the seat of the Football (or Soccer) World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. So much of the international bunting I’ve seen has got it wrong and many have asked me […]
Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden
To celebrate Rio’s new 2012 Unesco site , I am republishing this condensed passage from my book Brazil: Life, Blood, Soul. When Portuguese King João VI instituted the Botanical Garden in Rio in 1808, there were many fortunes to be made from the discovery and breeding of exotic plants. There are over 8,000 kinds of […]