...es in 1954, the same year that he first opened his private practice in Porto.In recent years, he has received Gold Medals and other honors from numerous Foundations and Societies in Europe, including hat is considered to be Europes highest architectural honor from the Mies van der Rohe Foundation and the European Economic Community. The latter aard as for his 1982-86 project, the Borges Irmao Bank in Vila do Conde, Portugal.In the United States in 1988, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design recognized Siza for his Malagueira Quarter Housing Project in Evora, Portugal that began in 1977, presenting him ith the Prince of ales Prize.The government of Evora, in 1977 folloing the revolution in Portugal, commissioned Siza to plan a housing project in the rural outskirts of the ton. It as to be one of several that he ould do for SAAL, the national housing association, consisting of 1200 lo-cost, single family ro house units, some one-story and some to-story units, all ith courtyards.In 1966, Siza began teaching at the University, and in 1976 as made a Professor of Architecture. In addition to his teaching there, he has been a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University the University of Pennsylvania Los Andes University of Bogota and the Ecole Polytechnique of Lausanne.In addition, he has been a guest lecturer at many universities and conferences throughout the orld, from the United States, Colombia and Argentina in the estern Hemisphere to his neighboring Spain, Germany, France, Noray, the Netherlands, Sitzerland, Austria and England in Europe.Recently completed projects in Portugal include mass housing in Evora, a ne High School of Education in Setubal, a ne School of Architecture for Porto University, a Modern Art Museum for Porto, the rebuilding of a burned area of Lisbon, a ne Library for Aveiro University.In Berlin, his competition inning entry for an apartment building, Schlesisches Tor, Kreuzberg, as recently completed. He has on numerous other competitions including the renovation of Compo di Marte in Venice, the reneal of the Casino and Cafe inkler, Salzburg, and the cultural centre of the Ministry of Defense in Madrid, Spain. The Meteorological Centre for the Olympic Village in Barcelona is also nearing completion.The range of Sizas ork is from simming pools to mass housing developments, ith residences for individuals, banks, office buildings, restaurants, art galleries, shops, virtually every other kind of structure in beteen.Quoting from Casabella magazine, July 1986, the correspondent concludes that Siza insists on continuous experimentation. Precisely for this reason his architecture can communicate to us an extraordinary sense of freedom and freshness in it one clearly reads the unfolding of an authentic design adventure. In accepting the risks of such adventure, Alvaro Siza has even been able to bring to the surface, in his architecture, hat one feared as in danger of extinction the heroic spirit of modern architecture. HYPERLINK http.pritzkerprize.comsiza.htm tl Contents of this PageContents of this Page Return to the top of this pageCitation from the Pritzker JuryThe architecture of Alvaro Siza is a joy to the senses and uplifts the spirit. Each line and curve is placed ith skill and sureness.Like the early Modernists, his shapes, molded by light, have a deceptive simplicity about them they are honest. They solve design problems directly. If shade is needed, an overhanging plane is placed to provide it. If a vie is desired, a indo is made. Stairs, ramps and alls all appear to be foreordained in a Siza building. That simplicity, upon closer examination hoever, is revealed as great complexity. There is a subtle mastery underlying hat appears to be natural creations. To paraphrase Sizas on ords, his is a response to a problem, a situation in transformation, in hich he participates.If Post Modernism had not claimed the term, and distorted its meaning, Alvaro Sizas buildings might legitimately have been called by that name. His architecture proceeds directly from Modernist influences that dominated the field from 1920 to 1970.hile Siza himself ould reject categorization, his architecture, as an extension of Modernist principles and aesthetic sensibility, is also an architecture of various respects respect for the traditions of his native Portugal, a country of time orn materials and shapes respect for context, hether it is an older building or neighborhood such as the Chiada Quarter in Lisbon, or the rocky edge of the ocean in his simming club in Porto and finally, respect for the times in hich todays architect practices ith all its constraints and challenges.Sizas characteristic attention to spatial relationships and appropriateness of form are as germane to a single family residence as they are to a much larger social housing complex or office building. The essence and quality of his ork is not effected by scale.Four decades of patient and innovative form-making by Siza have provided unique and credible architectural statements, hile at the same time surprising the profession ith its freshness.Siza is a teacher, not only at the university here he obtained his education, but also as a guest lecturer throughout the orld, fanning the intense interest his designs generate, particularly in the younger generation.Siza maintains that architects invent nothing, rather they transform in response to the problems they encounter. His enrichment of the orlds architectural vocabulary and inventory, over the past four decades, provides ample justification to present him ith the 1992 Pritzker Architecture Prize, as ell as the good ishes of the jury that he continue his transformations. HYPERLINK http.pritzkerprize.comsiza.htm tl Contents of this PageContents of this Page Return to the top of this page.Thoughts on the orks of Alvaro SizabyVittorio GregottiArchitect, Professor of Architecture, University of Venice, ItalyI have alays had the impression that Alvaro Sizas architecture sprang from archaeological foundations knon to him alonesigns invisible to anyone ho has not studied the site in detail through draings ith steady, focused concentration.Later on, those signs come together because they convey a feeling of groing out of something necessary, of relating, connecting, establishing and constructing, all the hile maintaining the tender uncertainty of hypothesis and discovery.The construction is slo and intense. It is made of the discrete, if not donright secret, signs of an attempt to start ane, based on establishing some creative and apparently simple and explicit signs of an universal design system.Sizas ork is characterized by just that sense of architecture as a means of listening to the real, in that it hides at least as much as it shos. Sizas architecture makes one see, and it reveals rather than interprets the truth of the context.It seems then, that he has very carefully removed parts from the design, hich is very clearly an...
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