Magazine “Módulo” Revista de Arquitetura nº 43, by Oscar Niemeyer”. Brazil, June / July / August 1976. Brazil: Rio de Janeiro, 1976. Square in original wraps. Wear to spine but overall a very good copy of this rare and fragile magazine. Text in Portugese, complete with an original English text translation laid in.

Módulo was a modernistic Brazilian magazine whose predominant theme was architecture, although it also featured content related to the arts, urbanism, design, and culture in general. It was harshly persecuted by the Brazilian military regime because of its editor, Oscar Niemeyer, who founded it in 1955 in Rio de Janeiro.[In the 1950s, it was one of the most important architecture magazines in the country, alongside Acrópole and Habitat. Modulo circulated from 1955 until 1965, when it was banned by the military dictatorship established in Brazil in 1964. Its headquarters were ransacked and vandalized, and resumed publication not until in 1975, in the early years of the political opening, again with Niemeyer in the editorial board and as contributor. These original magazines are rather scarce

Oscar Niemeyer (1907 – 2012) was one of the greatest Brazillian architects and urbanists. He is celebrated in Brazil and across the world for his extraordinary work. Niemeyer may be known for his acclaimed architecture, but his lesser-known qualities are his relentless desire to design and his determination to resist conformity. Niemeyer graduated in architecture from the National School of Fine Arts (Enba), in Rio de Janeiro, in 1934. That same year, he worked for the architect and urban planner Lucio Costa (1902-1998). In 1936, the office was commissioned to create plans for the Ministry of Education and Health (MES), in Rio de Janeiro, under the supervision of the French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier(1887-1965), whom Niemeyer assisted, as a draftsman. Based on the architect’s design, Niemeyer suggested changes that were consequently implemented into the construction of the building. Between 1940 and 1944, at the request of mayor Belo Horizonte, Juscelino Kubitschek (1902-1976), Niemeyer designed the Pampulha Architectural Ensemble, which is considered a landmark of his work. It breaks with the strict concepts of functionalism, using a new language of forms, curved surfaces, and explores the possibilities of reinforced concrete. In 1947, he was invited by the United Nations (UN) to participate in the commission of architects in charge of outlining the plans for New York’s future headquarters. His plans, conceptualized by Le Corbusier, were chosen as the basis for the final project. In Rio de Janeiro, in 1955, he founded the magazine Módulo. The President of the Republic, Juscelino Kubitschek, invited Niemeyer to collaborate on Lucio Costa’s urban design of the new capital of Brazil, Brasília, the following year. In 1958, he was appointed chief architect of Brasília, where he transferred to and remained until 1960.