After more than three decades of professional practice, João Álvaro Rocha passed away in the city of Porto at the age of 55. A key figure of Portuguese architecture, Rocha is known, above all, for his three stations of the Porto metro, although the bulk of his career – which took off at the time of the start of democracy in Portugal – involved public projects characterized by bold aesthetic language and a notable urban sensitivity. Good examples are the social housing developments for the Lugar de Outerio (1999) or the Rua da Bajouca (2001), both in Maia, where his office was. A professor at the Universidade do Porto for over a decade, Rocha was of late active as well in the Navarre School of Architecture.