Álvaro Siza Vieira facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Álvaro Siza Vieira
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Álvaro Siza Vieira in 2012
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Álvaro Joaquim de Melo Siza Vieira
25 June 1933 (age 91) Matosinhos, Portugal
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| Nationality | Portuguese |
| Alma mater | University of Porto |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Awards | Pritzker Prize (1992), Royal Gold Medal (2009), UIA Gold Medal (2011), Golden Lion for lifetime achievement (2012), National Architecture Award of Spain (2019) |
| Buildings | Faculty of Architecture, Porto |
Álvaro Joaquim de Melo Siza Vieira (born 25 June 1933) is a famous Portuguese architect and teacher. He is known around the world as Álvaro Siza. In Portugal, people often call him Siza Vieira. He has designed many important buildings.
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Early Life and Education
Álvaro Siza was born in Matosinhos, a small town by the sea in Portugal. This was near the city of Porto. He finished his architecture studies in 1955. He studied at the School of Fine Arts of the University of Porto. This school is now called the FAUP. While studying, he met his wife, Maria Antónia Siza. They had a daughter and a son together.
Career as an Architect
Siza started his own architecture office in Porto in 1954. He even built his first four houses in Matosinhos before he finished his studies! He worked with another architect, Fernando Távora, from 1955 to 1958. Both of them also taught at the Porto School of Architecture. Siza also worked with Eduardo Souto de Moura on big projects. These included Portugal's main buildings for Expo '98 in Lisbon and Expo 2000 in Hannover.
One of Siza's first well-known projects was a public swimming pool complex. He built it in the 1960s for Leça da Palmeira. This is a fishing town north of Porto. The Piscinas de Marés pools were finished in 1966. There was one pool for children and one for adults. The changing rooms and a cafe were also part of the design. All these buildings fit perfectly into the natural rock formations by the sea. They offered amazing views.
After a big change in Portugal in 1977, Siza was asked to plan a housing project. This was in the city of Évora. He designed 1,200 affordable homes. Some were one-story and some were two-story row houses. All of them had courtyards. He also helped rebuild Chiado, a historic part of Lisbon. This area was badly damaged by a fire in 1988.
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Many of his most famous buildings are in his hometown of Porto. These include the Boa Nova Tea House (1963). He also designed the Faculty of Architecture (1987–93). Another important building is the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art (1997).
Since the mid-1970s, Siza has worked on many designs. These include public housing, swimming pools, and university buildings. He also helped with a museum on Hombroich island in Germany. More recently, he started helping to restore old buildings. This was in Cidade Velha (Old Village) in Cape Verde.
In 2010, Siza won a competition to design a new entrance for the Alhambra in Spain. He worked with Juan Domingo Santos on this project. In 2014, Álvaro Siza designed the Building on the Water in China. This building won an award in 2015. In 2019, Siza started his first project in the United States. This was a tall apartment building in Manhattan, New York. In 2020, he designed four buildings for a golf club in Taiwan.
Teaching Architecture
Siza taught at FAUP from 1966 to 1969. He returned to teach there again in 1976. He has also been a visiting professor at many other universities. These include Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania in the United States. He also taught at universities in Colombia and Switzerland.
His Architectural Legacy
In 2014, Siza decided to give a large part of his architectural drawings and plans to the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Canada. This helps make his work available for others to study. He also gave specific project archives to foundations in Lisbon and Porto, Portugal. This ensures his important work is preserved.
Awards and Recognition
Álvaro Siza has received many important awards for his work. In 1992, he won the famous Pritzker Prize. This award is like the Nobel Prize for architects. He won it for his work on rebuilding the Chiado area of Lisbon after a big fire.
Other awards he has received include the Mies van der Rohe Award for European Architecture in 1988. He also won the Alvar Aalto Medal in the same year. In 1998, he received the Praemium Imperiale, a major arts award from Japan. He was given the Wolf Prize in Arts in 2001. In 2009, he received the RIBA's Royal Gold Medal. The International Union of Architects gave him their Gold Medal in 2011. In 2012, he received the Golden Lion award for his lifetime achievements at the Venice Architecture Biennale. In 2019, he became the first non-Spanish architect to win the National Architecture Award of Spain.
Many universities have also given him honorary doctorates. This means they recognized his great contributions to architecture. He is also a member of important groups like the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Selected Projects
Some of Siza's well-known buildings include the Iberê Camargo Foundation in Brazil. He also designed the Serralves museum in Portugal. Another notable work is the New Orleans building in the Netherlands.
Exhibitions
Álvaro Siza's work has been shown in many exhibitions around the world. These shows help people learn about his designs and ideas. Some notable exhibitions include:
- 2012: Alturas de Machu Picchu: Martín Chambi – Álvaro Siza at Work, in Montreal, Canada.
- 2014-2017: Visions of the Alhambra, shown in several cities like Berlin, Granada, Oslo, Toronto, and Porto.
- 2019: SIZA – Unseen & Unknown, at the Museum for Architectural Drawing in Berlin.
See also
In Spanish: Álvaro Siza para niños
