Mendes da Rocha Paulo
Mendes da Rocha Paulo
Paulo Mendes da Rocha is an international reference of the Brazilian architecture. Influenced at his beginning by his elders Oscar Niemeyer, Affonso Eduardo Reidy and the “brutalist” João Vilanova Artigas, he is part of those who knew, in their practice, to create an international style while keeping well anchored the Brazilian spirit. His work is assimilated to the “São Paulo’s brutalist architecture school”, a movement of creators focused on forms, simple materials and on a certain ethic. A brutalism which refers to the rough concrete. He creates works at the same time sincere and daring, imaginative and unexpected and always leaves an important place to the social dimension in his art. He associates the straightness of steel to the flexibility of concrete, moving away more and more from the carioca lyricism of Niemeyer to make geometry part of his ordinary register. The architect is a Man who carries a sincere interest in humankind, who has the role to create the most adequate and viable habitat possible. In that sense, Paulo Mendes da Rocha is a modernist; nothing distracts him from his vision for a better future. In 2006, Paulo Mendes da Rocha was awarded for his all carrier by the Pritzker Prize of Architecture.
– Pritzker Prize of Architecture – 2006
– Mies Van der Rohe Award for Latin America – 2000
– Museo da Casa Brasileira Award – 1987