Mendes da Rocha, Paulo, << MAYN dihsh dah ROH shah, POW loo >> (1928-2021), was a Brazilian architect who became a leading practitioner of the Brutalism style of modern architecture. Brutalists emphasize the use of concrete in their designs. The work of Mendes da Rocha is distinguished by his refined use of concrete. In 2006, Mendes da Rocha was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most prestigious international award in architecture (see Pritzker Architecture Prize).
Most of Mendes da Rocha’s major projects were built in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city. He is best known for his design of the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture in São Paulo, which is built on a triangular plot of land between the city center and the nearby residential zone. The project was completed in 1988. His Chapel of Saint Peter art museum in Campos doe Jordão (completed in 1989) is an imaginative combination of concrete, glass, and steel.
Mendes da Rocha’s other São Paulo projects include the Forma Furniture showroom (1987), with its striking strip windows that link the interior and exterior, and the renovation of the Patriarch Plaza (1992) in the center of São Paulo. The plaza features a steel roof canopy suspended over the public space. In 1993, Mendes da Rocha helped restore the Pinacoteca do Estado (State Art Gallery), the city’s oldest art museum. In the early 2000’s, he developed a master plan for the Technology City part of the University of Vigo in Galicia, Spain.
Paulo Archias Mendes da Rocha was born on Oct. 25, 1928, in Vitória, Brazil. He graduated with a degree in architecture from Mackenzie Presbyterian University in São Paulo in 1954. He began private practice in 1955. His first major project was the Paulistano Athletic Club (1958) in São Paulo. The structure is made of reinforced concrete with a metal roof suspended by steel cables that seems to float in the air.
During the 1960’s and 1970’s, Mendes da Rocha designed schools, housing projects, office buildings, cultural facilities, and university buildings. He often worked with other architects on these projects. One of his few major projects outside Brazil was his design for the Brazilian Pavilion for Expo ’70, a world’s fair in Osaka, Japan, in 1970. Mendes da Rocha was a lecturer at the School of Architecture at the University of São Paulo from 1961 until 1969, when he was forced to resign by the military dictatorship then ruling Brazil. He resumed teaching at the school in 1980, retiring in 1999. Mendes da Rocha died on May 23, 2021.
