Alvaro Siza

Álvaro Siza Viera (1933-) is considered the greatest Portuguese architect of the 20th century. During his life he was awarded all the most important prizes in the field: from the Pritzker Prize in 1992 to the Japanese Imperial Prize in 1998, from the Royal Gold Metal in 2009 to the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2012. The cornerstone of his architectural investigation is the search for a continuous synthesis between tradition and modernity, expressed in an unsurpassed ability to purify the historical forms of Portuguese architecture of any superfluous ornament to arrive at a fully modernist style, capable, thanks to its references to the past, of never running the risk of appearing cold or sterilely academic. Another fundamental aspect of his design practice is the great attention paid to the relationship between the work and its context, with great care taken to avoid scenographic “archistar effects” in favor of a more harmonious integration between his architecture and the surrounding landscape. He is considered one of the leading exponents of the so-called “Porto School”, together with his teacher Fernando Távora and his younger colleague Eduardo Souto de Moura. Among his works, many notable ones are the so-called “Sea Pools” in Leça de Palmeira (1959-73), located on the ocean shore, the headquarters of the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (1987-96) or the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea in Santiago de Compostela (1988-93). He also designed one of the five Vitra factories (1994) within the famous Vitra Campus. His rare experiences as a product designer have mainly focused on the lighting sector and have involved collaborations with brands such as Fontana Arte, Nemo and BD Barcelona Design.