Paulo Mendes da Rocha, one of the most important figures in Brazilian and world architecture, has passed away at the age of 92. Born in 1928 in Vitória, the architect began his career in the mid-1950s in São Paulo, the same city where he died on 23 May 2021. Defined by the combination of rigour and poetry, his work has been awarded the most prestigious awards, such as the Pritzker Prize in 2006 and the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale.

"The most striking attribute of his architecture is its Timelessness. Many decades after being built, each of his projects have resisted the test of time, both stylistically and physically. This astonishing consistency may be the consequence of his ideological integrity and his structural genius," said the Golden Lion jurors about him. "He is a nonconformist challenger and simultaneously a passionate realist. His fields of interest are beyond architecture, in political, social, geographical, historical and technical realms. The role model he played for many generations of architects in Brazil, Latin America and everywhere is that of a person able to join shared and collective efforts as well as someone able to attract others to the cause of a better built environment."