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Mindlin, Henrique E(phim)
(b São Paulo, 1 Feb 1911; d Rio de Janeiro, 6 July 1971). Brazilian architect, writer and teacher. He was the son of Russian immigrants and grew up in an artistic environment. He graduated in 1932 as an engineer–architect from the Mackenzie School of Engineering, São Paulo, and went into practice in São Paulo, carrying out some Modernist work. In 1942 he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he came into contact with the architects who had been influenced by Le Corbusier, including Lúcio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer, Alfonso Eduardo Reidy and Jorge Moreira; like them, Mindlin became involved with the development of a Brazilian version of Le Corbusier’s rationalist Modernism. His first project in Rio was a prizewinning design for the new Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1942; unexecuted) at Itamaraty; thereafter he won several prizes, becoming well known for his participation in competitions and exhibitions. In 1943–4 he studied architecture and construction projects in the USA. He then embarked on a prolific career, designing houses, blocks of flats, offices, industrial buildings, hotels and shops. His domestic work was highly creative, often using butterfly roofs, sunscreens and naturally finished wall planes, and his commercial work incorporated the latest technology, for example the Avenida Central Building (1956), Rio, which was the first steel-framed skyscraper in Brazil. From 1955 to 1966 he also worked in partnership with Giancarlo Palanti (1906–77), producing buildings such as the headquarters of the Bank of London & South America (1957), São Paulo, with a curtain-wall construction, and undertaking the urban development of the Tróia Peninsula, Setúbal, Portugal, where he also had an office (1965–7). In his later work he developed the use of exposed concrete in the Brutalist style, for example the Guanabara State Bank Headquarters (1963), Rio de Janeiro, and for the IBM Factory (1969), São Paulo, he used a space frame structure. Mindlin was also an important writer and critic, contributing numerous articles to journals such as Acrópole and producing an important record of early Brazilian Modernism in his book (1956); he was also a spokesman for modern Brazilian architecture at international congresses. He was Professor at the Faculty of Architecture, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1968–71), and he also taught in the USA and England.
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