April 11, 2006

	click image to view larger Brazilian Museum of Sculpture
	FORMA Store
	Patriarch Plaza and Viaduct do Cha
	Paulo Mendes da Rocha Residence
	The Paulistano Athletic Club
	The State Museum of São Paulo Images courtesy of the Hyatt Foundation

Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha has been awarded the 2006 Pritzker Prize, the profession’s most prestigious accolade. The 77-year-old architect is the unofficial dean of the Paulista school of architecture, responsible for infusing the Brazilian variant of Brutalism with delicacy, flair, and technical elegance.

The Pritzker jury cited Mendes da Rocha for his “bold use of simple materials” and “deep understanding of the poetics of space.” He is also recognized for the ethical dimension of his architecture, which attempts to make monumental buildings of concrete and steel feel accessible.

“Paulo Mendes da Rocha brings the joyful lilt of Brazil to his work, and in so doing lifts the spirits of all those whose lives are touched by it,” added Lord Palumbo, the jury’s chairman.

Perhaps the architect’s most celebrated building is the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture, in São Paulo, completed in 1995, a complex of concrete plazas and partially buried galleries. Typical of his work, Mendes da Rocha alleviates the accumulated massiveness with a simple dramatic element: A slender, 150-foot-long concrete roof effortlessly spans the site without arching, supported only by small struts at either end. In 2002, he suspended an enormous steel canopy over the Plaza of the Patriarch in São Paulo’s downtown; even at 40 tons the covering seems as light as a canvas sail (RECORD, Dec. 2005, p.63).

Nearly all of the architect’s work can be found in his home base of São Paulo, including the renovation of the São Paulo State Art Museum, completed in 1999, and his first major project, the Paulistano Athletic Club, completed in 1958. He frequently collaborates with young Paulista architects on art gallery and retail store projects around the city.

This year’s award, which comes with a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion, will be presented to the architect in a ceremony in Istanbul at the end of May. Mendes da Rocha is the third Latin American to win the award, and the second Brazilian. Oscar Niemeyer received the Pritzker in 1988.

David Morton

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