The latest installment in our series of free Revit content for iconic seating is a collection focusing on Oscar Niemeyer and his famous Rio Chair.

A Little Bit of History

Oscar Niemeyer was born Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho on December 15, 1907. After graduating from his studies in Fine Art, he worked for his father in typography. Niemeyer's first job in the world of architecture was as an unpaid draughtsman in the studio of Lúcio Costa, who would later go on to create the master plan for Brasília in 1956.  

In 1936, Costa was tasked to design the new headquarters of the Ministry of Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro. He put together a small team of young architects for the project. Even though he never originally selected Niemeyer for the task, Niemeyer's insistence led to him working closely with Le Corbusier, who was invited to consult for the project. After Niemeyer made noticeable changes to Le Corbusier's design, Lúcio Costa was impressed and allowed him to ultimately take the lead on the project.

Niemeyer was influenced by Le Corbusier, but his Brazilian modernist architecture developed away from the right angles, straight lines and rationalist approach. He leaned towards sweeping concrete curves, inspired by the beaches of Rio, to drive focus on the aesthetics of a building.

In 1978, Niemeyer designed the Rio rocking chaise lounge chair for Fasem International.

Chair Details

Our Rio chaise lounge Revit family has been created from fully native Revit geometry. The model has three levels of detail to provide appropriate views at different scales. As with all of our seating families, the chair uses 2D geometry in plan view to facilitate a fast workflow when designing room layouts. There is only one built-in type to suit the original frame and upholstery designed for Fasem International.

Andy for Context

We've updated Andy, our entourage family, for the Rio chair. The version in this collection has specific types to suit the chair height and curvature. He is also now reading The Curves of Time by Oscar Niemeyer.

Get the Collection

Click here to view and download the full collection.

Collection Content List

1. Rio Chair designed by Oscar Niemeyer, manufactured by Fasem International.
2. Andy v5.0-Rio entourage family.

Want More Content?

All of our free Revit collections are part of Kinship Content+,  a service providing companies with on-demand Revit content creation as well as access to a pool of existing Revit families from other customer requests and our own internal development.

If you have any comments, or suggestions for components you wish were in this collection, please let us know at hello@kinship.io.