Paulo Mendes da Rocha spent his childhood between the city of Vitória – the harbor capital of Espírito Santo were he was born in October 1928, at his maternal grandparents house, and the Island Paquetá, in the middle of Guanabara Bay – Rio de Janeiro, the national capital, were lived the family Mendes da Rocha.
The architect’s family moved to São Paulo city where his father Paulo Menezes Mendes da Rocha was named the Chair of the Naval and Harbor Resources of the Polytechnic School of the São Paulo University in 1940 his father; he directed this School from 1943 to 1947.
Always in São Paulo, Paulo finished the Mackenzie Architecture School in 1954 and was able to build a solid carrier designing houses, schools, apartment buildings, museums, furniture, theater sets and several urban projects.
Soon after graduating he won a national project competition for the construction of Clube Atlético Paulistano Gymnasium. This work brought him public recognition and won also the Prize President Award at the 6th Bienal of São Paulo, in 1961.
In 1968, the architect won the national project competition for the The Brazilian Pavilion at Osaka Expo 70 and traveled to that city to follow the development of the construction in 1969.
Among several other international honours, he has been awarded with : Honoree Fellow from the Architecture College of Lisbon, Portugal; The Mies Van der Rohe Foundation Prize for his project for the Sao Paulo’s Pinacoteca, and in 2000 he was selected to represent the country in the Venice Biennale.
In 2006, he received the Pritzker Architectural Prize.
Parallel to his work at the office, Paulo joined the academic world in the 60´s by the hands of his good friend, Vilanova Artigas, one of the most remarkable architects of the country. Both architects enhanced the School of Architecture of the University Sao Paulo with their social and humanistic view which has had major influence in many generations of architects and artists to come.
Paulo’s complete work was vastly published in various magazines both national and international and in many books such as:
Mendes da Rocha
Introducciones / Introductions
Josep Ma.Montaner
Editorial Gustavo Gili, Barcelona, 1996
Paulo Mendes da Rocha
Cosak & Naify, 2000 and 2007
Paulo Mendes da Rocha
Bauten und Projekte
Annette Spiro
Verlag Niggli AG, Sulgen I Zürich, 2002
Paulo Mendes da Rocha
Helio Piñon
Romano Guerra Editora, 1ª edição 2002
Paulo Mendes da Rocha
ESTRUTURA: O ÊXITO DA FORMA
Denise Chini Solot
Paulo Mendes da Rocha – Fifty Years
Rizzoli – 2007
Besides his architectural and urban projects, he draw some interesting furniture- one example is the chair “Paulistano”, published in the magazine new furniture. neue möbel. meubles nouveaux – Verlag Gerd Hatje Stuttgart (1958).
