PMdR, in memoriam

The Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha died on May 23 at the age of 92.

PMdR  (as he is abbreviated) inhabited an important place within Brazil’s architectural continuum, which begins at modernity, charged with social idealism. From that point, it continues to move forward with guileless innovation and technical sophistication. PMdR was preceded by Vilanova Artigas (and others) and he is followed by MMBB, METRO, SPBR (and others). In contrast to Rio de Janeiro’s more sensuous ‘Carioca School’ (Oscar Niemeyer, et al), da Rocha is usually associated with Sao Paolo’s ‘Paulista School’, masters of straight lines, long spans, and delicate balances.

Architecture always was and has been about technique, art, and science. If you don’t know how to read or write you can’t come up with a poem. You have to know these basic tools. It is all about extracting knowledge from such disciplines as anthropology, geology, structural mechanics, building construction, design, and so on to come up with a spatial interpretation, which is called architecture. It is a peculiar way of knowledge, not a form for form sake. It is about methodology.

Paulo Mendes da Rocha

This methodology produces extraordinary results. And when someone makes a discovery, everyone unabashedly picks it up for reuse and reinterpretation. A very rare, dynamic, living and breathing consistency results. I didn’t meet PMdR but I did spend a little time with Angelo Bucci of SPBR, a cheerful mad scientist of a designer who collaborated with him and unabashedly cites his influence in addition to that of seven other Brazilians. This joy in architecture’s potential and in the shared experience of the profession—mentors, collaborators, and students—is infectious.