Raw Passion

Prize-winning Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha defines his work in the context of freedom, nature and literature.

- Karen Mccartney

SOMETIMES WORK NG LIFE delivers an unexpected gift. I had researched and written about Brazilian Pritzker Prize-winning architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha for a book project that showcased his 1970 masterpiece, the Masetti House. But it took the drive and enthusiasm of Jacqueline Foti-Lowe, of Hub, to organise an architecture tour of São Paulo, aided by Guillaume Leman of furniture brand Objekto (who represents Mendes da Rocha’s celebrated ‘Paulistano’ armchair from 1957), and to engineer a meeting.

The tour gave me the chance to see several of his buildings first hand, to experience his architecture both in the residential and the public realm and to interview him in the modest 1940s office (by Rino Levi) that he shares with his architect wife Helene Afanasieff. Despite the fact that at 89 years old he is semi-retired and only accepts projects where the tiresome complexities of admin are taken on by affiliated practices, the accolades keep rolling in. Just last year the Royal Institute of British Architects awarded him a gold medal and in 2016 he was presented with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement as part of the Venice Biennale.