Archive for: ÁLVARO SIZA VIEIRA

ÁLVARO SIZA VIEIRA graduated in architecture in 1955, at the former School of Fine Arts, University of Porto (later known as FAUP – Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto). His first completed work was in 1954 – four houses in Matosinhos – the same year he opened his private practice. He always had an admiration for the works of Adolf Loos, Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar Aalto, but early on was able to establish his own language – based on the international modernist references and strong building tradition of Portugal.

Among Siza’s earliest works at a rural coastal location north of Porto was a public pool complex at Leça da Palmeira (1960s), and the Boa Nova Tea House (1963).  In 1977, following the revolution in Portugal, the city government of Évora commissioned Siza to plan a housing project – Quinta da Malagueira – in the rural outskirts of the town. Siza was also a member of the team which reconstructed Chiado, the historic center of Lisbon destroyed by a fire in 1988. Other notable projects include the Faculty of Architecture (1987–93), and the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art (1997). Latterly Siza collaborated with fellow prize winning architect Souto de Moura on the Serpentine Pavilion (2005) and the RA ‘Sensing Spaces’ exhibition (2014). In 1992 Siza was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize.