This is the third major international award that Mendes da Rocha, the patriarch of Brazilian architecture, has received this year: in the spring it was the Venice Biennale's Golden Lion for his vital contribution, and two weeks ago - the Japanese Praemium Imperiale.
RIBA President Jane Duncan noted that "the revolutionary works of Paulo Mendes da Rocha personify the Brazilian architecture of the 1950s - raw, massive and beautiful in its 'brutality' concrete." Also, John MacAslan, the author of the award's jury statement, recalled the laureate's spiritual affiliation by the middle of the century. Such consistency - Mendes da Rocha became famous in the late 1950s - combined with relevance, MacAslan sees a sign of his outstanding talent. Also from those years - the social and socialist orientation of the work of the Brazilian, which should remind the fans of the current architect-activists that their heroes were not the first to turn to this topic.
Recall that the RIBA Gold Medal is the oldest architectural award in the world (awarded since 1848), among the laureates of which are not only Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas and other modern "stars", but also Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Hendrik Berlage, F. L. … Wright, Victor Vesnin, Auguste Perret, Le Corbusier and Alvar Aalto. The candidacy of each laureate is approved by the head of state: in the first decades of the existence of the award, it was Queen Victoria, now - Elizabeth II.
