Brazilian architect, Paulo Mendes da Rocha to speak at the Art Institute of Chicago October 20, 2006

The Butler-VanderLinden Lecture on Architecture:

Paulo Mendes da Rocha : 2006 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize?

Please join the Architecture & Design Society on Friday, October 20, 2006 at 6:00 p.m. in Rubloff Auditorium for a special lecture by Paulo Mendes da Rocha, widely considered one of Brazil?s most exceptional architects and the 2006 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Friday

October 20, 2006

6:00 p.m.

Rubloff Auditorium

The Art Institute of Chicago

111 South Michigan Avenue

Enter through Columbus Drive doors
Tickets: $5 student with valid i.d.; $10 A&D Society members; $15 general public
To purchase tickets and for further information, including a membership form, please phone the A&D Society at 312.443.7300, email archsoc @ artic.edu, or visit the website at www.archdesignsociety.org.

Proceeds from ticket sales benefit the Architecture & Design Society?s Education and Acquisition Fund.

This lecture is generously supported by the Butler-VanderLinden endowment, Ambassador Ricardo Luiz Viana-Carvalho, the Brazilian Consulate, and the Brazilian government. The Architecture & Design Society gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support of Goldman Sachs, British Airways and Park Hyatt Chicago.

Paulo Mendes da Rocha is internationally regarded as one of the most relevant architects in Brazil, an early key figure in the São Paulo, or Paulist brutalist style of architecture that, among other characteristics, promoted an ethical dimension to the practice of architecture. Over the last fifty years he has had an influential and constantly evolving career that embraces a modern sensibility while incorporating texture and warmth into common building materials, such as unfinished concrete. The Pritzker Prize jury bestowed its esteemed award to Mendes da Rocha for ?adhering to a social vision commensurate with the new world, [by] remind[ing] us that architecture is foremost a human endeavor inspired by nature?s omnipresence.?

Of the architect?s many professional and academic honors, the award that brought him international attention was The Mies van der Rohe Prize for Latin American Architecture in 2000. That same year he was selected to represent the country in the Venice Biennale. He has worked almost exclusively in his hometown of São Paulo and is known for structurally innovative projects including the renovation of the São Paulo State Art Museum (1999), the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture (1985-95) and the highly acclaimed public work, the shelter at the Plaza of the Patriarch, completed in 2002.

Official Website: http://www.archdesignsociety.org