One of the most prominent Brazilian architects of our time, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, passed away in São Paulo on Sunday, May 23, 2021, as a result of cancer at the age of 92. Winner of many prestigious awards, including the Mies van der Rohe Prize for Latin American Architecture, the Pritzker Prize in 2006 and the RIBA Gold Medal in 2017, he created architecture in the Brutalist trend and was among the continuators of Oscar Niemeyer's modernism in Brazil.
Paulistano Athletic Club, São Paulo, 1958
© RIBA
The architect gained fame with his design of a gymnasium, swimming and sports spaces for the Paulistano Athletic Club in São Paulo in 1958, and the architect's own house, designed two years later, became his architectural manifesto of sorts - built from precast concrete elements, the austere volume is sunk in the landscape, opening up to what is outside the garden to the inside.
Casa Fernando Millán, São Paulo, 1970-1974
© thehardt
In the years that followed, the architect designed St. Peter's Chapel in Campos do Jordão, the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture, the adaptation of the 19th-century School of Arts and Crafts into the State Museum, a residence for art dealer Fernando Millán, the Paulistano series of chairs, among others, and represented his country at the 2000 Venice Architecture Biennale.
Paulo Mendes da Rocha on the Paulistano chair
© Museu de Arte de São Paulo
[Paulo Mendes da Rocha] with his architecture modifies landscape and space, aiming to satisfy not only social but also aesthetic needs of man. He [...] has dedicated himself to creating an architecture guided by a sense of responsibility for the inhabitants of the buildings he implements, as well as a responsibility to society more broadly. Remaining faithful to a vision adequate to the new world, this artist reminds us that architecture is first and foremost a human activity inspired by the omnipresence of nature," reads the opinion of the Pritzker Prize Jury for 2006. "Concrete materials, which are the architect's hallmark, as well as intelligent yet uncomplicated methods of implementation, have resulted in the creation of buildings of great expressive power and impact, which are gaining worldwide recognition. [...] Mendes da Rocha dedicated himself to the search for a design synthesis of content and form, where the measure of beauty is technical excellence.
Paulo Mendes da Rocha during a lecture for the RIBA in 2017.
© RIBA
