ARCHITECTURE: Paulo Mendes da Rocha
Paulo Mendes da Rocha (25/10/1928-23/5/2021) is one of Brazil’s greatest architects and urbanists. Born in Vitória, Espírito Santo , Mendes da Rocha won the Pritzker Prize in 2006, and is one of the most representative architects of the Brazilian Paulista School, also known as “Paulista Brutalism” that utilizes more geometric lines, rougher finishes and bulkier massing than other Brazilian Modernists such as Oscar Niemeyer.
By Efi Michalarou
Paulo Mendes da Rocha received a degree in architecture in 1954, opened his office in 1955, he began his career as member of the “Paulist brutalist” Avant-Garde and soon thereafter created an early masterpiece, the Athletic Club of São Paulo, just three years after his graduation, this building gave national reputation to this young architect as an innovative and capable of using advanced reinforced concrete and steel structures. In this case, using a sculptural concrete base for the amphitheater as the anchor for a steel cable structure that in turn holds the metal truss roof. It has been described by the Pritzker Prize Jury as an “Early Masterpiece”. He also designed the “Paulistano Armchair” to be part of the living rooms of the Club. Made by bending a single steel bar and attaching a leather seat and back, the elegant sling chair pushes the limits of structural form, yet remains completely comfortable and functional. The architect Vilanova Artigas, a generation older, invited Mendes da Rocha to teach at the University of São Paulo’s Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism in 196, but in 1969 was banned from his position by the military dictatorship due to his opinions on the social role that architects should have. He acted also as President of the Brazilian Institute for Architects. For the Brazilian pavilion at Expo ’70 in Osaka, Japan, he balanced a building on a single point of terrain with audacious elegance. The next year, he was a finalist in competition for design of the Centre George Pompidou, Paris. Among his widely known built works is the Museum of Contemporary Art (1975) at the University of São Paulo, the Forma Furniture showroom (1987) in São Paulo and the Brazilian Sculpture Museum (1987-92). In 1980, he returned to his position as Professor of Architectural Design until retiring from teaching in 1999. Between 1992 and 2002 he revitalized Patriarch Plaza and Viaduct do Cha in the heart of São Paulo, adding a striking suspended roof canopy made of steel and restructuring the public space. Recent projects include a master plan for Vigo University in Galicia, Spain, and the Boulevard des Sports in Paris. He received the “Professional Trajectory Prize” at the 1998 Ibero-American Biennial, in 2001 the “Mies van der Rohe Award for Latin American architecture” for his transformation of the neoclassical Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, the oldest fine arts museum of the city, in 2006 the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Paulo Mendes da Rocha was hospitalized in São Paulo due to lung cancer and passed away at dawn on Sunday, May 23, 2021.
