Ellen Renata Bernardi

Belo Horizonte · the first ones. Commissioned by Kubitschek in 1940 when Niemeyer was thirty-three, and the place where the curve arrives.

São Paulo · towers in the old centre, lived and worked in rather than visited. Copan alone holds five thousand people.

Niterói · the waterfront route commissioned in his nineties, looking back across the bay at Rio. Four of the planned works stand.

São Paulo · six works inside one park, joined by the marquee — the canopy Niemeyer drew so you could cross between them without standing in the sun.

Brasília · the capital's spine. Six works along a single straight line, most within sight of one another across the esplanade.

Five cities · late works strung along the northeastern coast, from Natal to Maceió. Not a morning — a thousand kilometres, and meant to be hard.