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PAULO MENDES DA ROCHA
Brazil
When he turned ninety on October 25, 2018, the Brazilian press hailed him as Brazils greatest living architect. He and Oscar Niemeyer are the only Brazilians to win a Pritzker Prize. He was also awarded a Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale, as well as a Royal Gold Medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the Imperial Japan Prize, and the Mies van der Rohe Prize. And now he chairs the UIA2020RIO Honour Committee.
Having graduated from the Architecture and Urban Planning School at Mackenzie Presbyterian University, São Paulo in 1954, his main teacher, João Batista Vilanova Artigas, invited him to lecture at the Architecture and Urban Planning School at São Paulo University (FAUUSP) in 1961. Indeed, he became one of the exponents of the Paulista School led by Vilanova Artigas, characterised by the extensive use of reinforced concrete and a "raw, clean, clear and socially responsible" architecture, with rational structures and large open spaces.
Throughout his career, he has produced architectural landmarks in São Paulo, including the Edifício Guaimbê Building, the Brazilian Sculpture Museum, the Butantã House, the refit of the Pinacoteca building and the 24 de Maio SESC building, as well as projects in other cities, such as the Serra Dourada stadium in Goiânia, the Cais das Artes Museum and Theatre in Vitória, capital, the Espírito Santo State and the National Coach Museum in Lisbon, Portugal.
Under Brazils military dictatorship in Brazil, he was banned from teaching at the FAUUSP in 1969, returning only under political amnesty in 1980. He continued to teach at this institution until retiring as a full professor in 1998.
In his Pritzker award, its jury mentioned his "deep understanding of the poetics of space" and an "architecture of deep social engagement". As assessed by this jury, which included world-renowned practitioners such as Frank Gehry and Rolf Fehlbaum, his work discloses an ongoing quest for harmony between Architecture and Nature as congruent forces.
His work as an architect also led him into intense activities as a lecturer, with invitations to many events in Brazil and elsewhere in the world, among them the international seminar hosted by the College of Architects in Malaga, Spain (1990); the Less is more Exhibition organised by the College of Architects in Catalonia (1996); the Anybody Conference in Buenos Aires (1996); the XI Chilean Architecture Biennial (1997); and the Arrábida courses at Expo 98 in Lisbon. He also participated in classes and lectures at the Minho universities, Porto and Coimbra in Portugal (1999); the La Coruña Architecture School in Santiago de Compostela; and the headquarters of the College of Architects in Galicia, Spain (1999).