Casa will open two exhibitions of Paulo Mendes da Rocha in 2023

The exhibitions will occupy CA’s exhibition spaces, the Exhibition Hall and the Casa Gallery. The largest exhibition, at the Exhibition Hall, will be curated by the architect and architectural historian Jean-Louis Cohen, and by Vanessa Grossman, a Brazilian architect based in Rotterdam. The exhibition project will be authored by Eduardo Souto de Moura, Pritzker Prize 2011.
This will be a great retrospective exhibition of the work of architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha from a reading of the collection donated to Casa da Arquitectura – which includes all the material produced during his long professional life, from the 50s of the last century to the present day – and it will remain open until October 2023.
Simultaneously, at the Casa Gallery, there will be an exhibition curated by the Brazilian architect Marta Moreira and the Portuguese engineer Rui Furtado, with an exhibition project by Ricardo Bak Gordon, a team that, together with Paulo Mendes da Rocha and Nuno Sampaio, carried out the project for the National Coach Museum.
Along with these two exhibitions, there will be a programme of activities curated by architect Nuno Sampaio, Executive Director and General Commissioner of CA, together with architect Catherine Otondo, responsible for organizing the Paulo Mendes da Rocha collection, who arrived at CA in September 2020. This wide-ranging parallel programme will include debates, conferences, site visits and is intended to be held for five months in six different countries: Portugal, Brazil, Italy, United Kingdom, United States of America and Japan, and will turn out to be a great celebration of architecture and of the work and person of Paulo Mendes da Rocha. Pritzker Prize 2006, the first honorary member of Casa da Arquitectura in September 2018 and the most recent awarded with the gold medal at the UIA Congress – International Union of Architects, Paulo Mendes da Rocha passed away on last 23 May.
“This will be a great accomplishment of Casa da Arquitectura to celebrate the person and universal work of Paulo Mendes da Rocha, his ethical, aesthetic and technical principles throughout the world and will make these exhibitions in Matosinhos a must-visit for those who like architecture and, in particular, the work of Paulo Mendes da Rocha”, highlights the Executive Director, Nuno Sampaio.
Casa da Arquitectura, the organising institution, is currently establishing partnerships with several entities around the world to pursue this ambitious plan of activities.