How do Oscar Niemeyer’s designs use concrete, glass, and curved forms?

In Brasília, Oscar Niemeyer utilized reinforced concrete, glass, and curved forms to create a unique, sculptural architectural language that defines the city's monumental government district.12

• Curved Forms: Niemeyer is renowned for his use of lyrical, free-flowing shapes that depart from rigid rectilinear norms. In the Square of Three Powers, for example, he designed the Congressional Palace using a massive concrete dome and an equally large concrete bowl. Similarly, the Metropolitan Cathedral features 16 graceful, parabolic buttresses that sweep upward to form a circular structure.23
• Concrete: He employed concrete to create ethereal, sculptural porticos and supports that define the city's skyline. These structures often serve as the primary aesthetic and structural elements, such as the buttresses of the cathedral or the administrative towers of the Congress.132
• Glass: Glass is used to provide transparency and lightness, often contrasting with the solid, heavy appearance of concrete. In many of his designs, expansive glass facades are shielded by concrete porticos to protect interiors from the intense tropical sun. In the cathedral, translucent walls of tinted glass are stretched between the concrete supports, creating a vivid, light-filled interior.132