Beyond Geometry: Álvaro Siza and Contemporary Portuguese Architecture

Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza, recipient of the 1992 Pritzker Prize, is widely regarded as an "architect's architect". His deeply contextual approaches give rise to buildings of astonishing variety—those forms with intention and corners that beguile with subtle complexity, captivating observers for decades.

This journey traces the Atlantic coastline through Portugal and Spain, offering the most comprehensive study of Siza's works. We examine key projects from his early, middle, and late periods, including a special visit to his recently completed Siza Wing at the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art. The journey also takes you into a focused survey of Portuguese contemporary architecture, tracing the lineage of the Porto School from its pioneer Fernando Távora, to Siza, and onward to his successor Eduardo Souto de Moura.

“Architects don’t invent anything; they transform reality,” Siza once whispered. This journey unfolds as a dialogue with his work, exploring how deep respect for the past can liberate, rather than limit, architectural imagination. We will learn how he preserved his unique voice within a lineage, and how he discovered a continuous thread of tradition across a stunning diversity of projects.