Paulo Mendes da Rocha, one of the most acclaimed architects in Brazil and around the world, has passed away at 92. The pioneer of “Brazilian Brutalism” died in São Paulo on Sunday May 23rd, following a battle with lung cancer.

Born in 1928, Mendes da Rocha’s career began at the age of 29 when he won a competition to design the gymnasium of the Paulistano Athletics Club. Following the Paulistano Athletics Club, Mendes da Rocha designed many notable projects including the renovation of the Pincoteca do Estado de São Paulo, the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture, and the Patriarch Plaza redevelopment project with its iconic portico. He is considered one of the exponents of the “Paulista School”, a group of modernist architects formed in the 1950s that embraced exposed concrete surfaces, rough finishes, and heavy, brutalist massing.

His contribution to architecture was recognized in numerous awards, including the Mies van der Rohe Award for Latin American Architecture in 2000, the Pritzker Prize in 2006, the 2016 Venice Biennale Golden Lion, the Japan Art Association's Praemium Imperiale International Arts Award in 2016, and the RIBA Gold Medal in 2017.

In September 2020, Mendes da Rocha donated his entire archive of works, almost 8,800 items relating to 320 project, to the Casa de Arquitectura, Portugal’s most prominent architectural venue. The collection included 6300 sketches, 3000 photographs, and 300 publications. Reflecting on his death, the Casa de Arquitectura remarked that “from now on, the world and architecture will remain irremediably poorer.”

Nadia Somekh, President of the Council of Architecture and Urbanism of Brazil, said that Mendes da Rocha “leaves a legacy of masterpieces as a result of a professional practice marked by boldness and technological refinement. Paulo Mendes da Rocha was a generous educator, not only as a teacher, but also in daily contact with colleagues with whom he worked on projects and works. We express our feelings to family members, friends, colleagues and to Brazilian society as a whole, who lost a humanist who vigorously expressed the social commitment of Architecture and Urbanism.”

Paulo Mendes da Rocha is survived by his wife Helene, and children Renata, Guilherme, Paulo, Pedro, Joana, and Naná. Paying tribute to his father, Pedro Mendes da Rocha said, “After so much designing buildings in concrete and steel, my father went on to design galaxies with the stars.”