Alvaro Siza Vieira,  was awarded on Wednesday morning at the Museum Soares dos Reis, in Porto with the Luso-Spanish Prize for Art and Culture, delivered by Secretary of State for CultureFrancisco José Viegas and the Minister of Culture of Spain, Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde.

Siza Vieira succeeds Joseph Benedict and Perfeito Quadrado, previous winners of this award, highly prestigious and representing the binding of the artistic dialogue between the countries that make up the Iberian Peninsula.

The Portuguese architect was presented with a piece written by Fernanda Fragateiro and did not hide the “great emotion” by the honor bestowed with such distinction.

His artistic journey that has so often contemplated Spain,  through the poetry in the design of the Galician Centre of Contemporary Art and the School of Journalism, two examples of his work in Santiago de Compostela, was bestowed with compliments from the Spanish Government by the words of Angeles González, praising ”the universal work of someone who built places for men and women around the world with a desire to better accommodate the society.”

Francisco José Viegas did not miss out on the tribute to Siza Vieira, loaded with symbolism because it coincides with the birthday of Jose Saramago. The Portuguese Secretary of State praised the role of the architect from Matosinhos “internationalization of culture thanks to a strong and active presence.”

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Simplicity is a virtue difficult to achieve – Siza Vieira

The architect Alvaro Siza Vieira, 1992 Pritzker Prize, which was on Monday 24/10/2011 honorary doctorate from the University of Seville, argued that simplicity is a virtue difficult to achieve and should not be confused with simplification.

“Simplicity is a difficult thing to achieve … it is often interpreted as a simplification, but that’s another thing. Doing a job that is based on removing what is not needed in the architectural expression is a difficult path, both in terms working as attention, “said Siza, as quoted by the Efe agency, in a meeting with the press.

“Not all the architecture must have a simple intention, because there is a difference in cities, between buildings: a public building in the interest of all citizens for their activity, and has by nature a strong expression, but another part of the fabric that makes the city does not have to be worked as a monument, “he claimed.

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The jury’s award highlights the fact that Siza makes architecture “transparent and respectful of the environment where it fits,” praising its ability to develop a “poetic feeling to every building, by working with space and light.”

Proof of this highlights, is the building of the University of the Basque Country, which will be completed this year, the Meteorological Center of the Olympic Village in Barcelona (1992), the Galician Center for Contemporary Art in Santiago de Compostela (1993), the Rectorate of the University of Alicante (1997) and the Foundation Serralves (1999).

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The award, which reaches it´s ninth edition this year, had 31 candidates competing in various countries.

This is the first of nine awards given annually by the foundation that also includes Performing Arts, Science and Research, Sports, Economics, Literature, Thought and Humanities, Restoration and Conservation and Human Path.

In previous years the prize was awarded to names like James Rosenquist (2002), Peter Eisenman (2003), Sir Anthony Caro (2004), Richard Serra (2005), Yoko Ono (2006), Markus Lüpertz (2007), Martín Chirino ( 2008) and Jan Fabre (2009).

More information can be found at the Fundación Cristóbal Gabarrón webiste

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IAU – International Architects Union Gold Medal 2011
The International Architects Union decided to give the Gold Medal to the known architect Siza Vieira. The candidature of Porto architect to one of the most prestigious architectural awards, was proposed ??by RIBA – Royal Institute of British Architects, announced the website of Portuguese Order of Architects, Southern Regional Chamber

“(…) It’s Architecture cannot be copied, but is a fine example for young architects. He never gave in to easyness or fashion. He is the “Architect” of the 20th century’s final quarter and e continues, in this 21st century, to incarnate the excelency and the biggest bets of the job.”, referes the press release sent by the IAU.

The Portuguese Order of Architects had already presented the candidature of Álvaro Siza Vieira both in 2002 and in 2005, but this was only given in the 2011 edition.

The awards and the gold medal of the IAU are attributed every three years,

The Awards and the Gold Medal of the UIA are awarded every three years, at the Congress of the International Union of Architects. Created in 1961 to reward professionals whose merit, talent or actions are of an international scope, the Awards are honor-based. The Gold Medal was established by the Council of the UIA in 1984 to devote an architect who has been distinguished by his work and the pursuit of the profession, the quality of its achievements and its commitment to the communities, society and promotion of architectural art.

The Gold Medal Award and the UIA in its 2011 edition will be officially awarded at a ceremony taking place at 24. World Congress of Architects in Tokyo, Japan, September 27, 2011.

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Alvaro Siza Vieira Awards, Prizes and Recognitions.

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“Every design,” says Siza, “is a rigorous attempt at capturing a concrete moment of a transitory image in all its nuances. The extent to which this transitory quality is captured comes through in the designs which will be more or less clear: the more precise they are, the more vulnerable.”

While working on a sizable office building design for Porto, Siza discounted any possibility of blending the new building by imitating its surroundings. The area was too important since it was between the historic center of the city and a bridge that has great significance because it was built by Eiffel in 1866.

He explained, “We have gone beyond the stage whereby unity of language was believed to be the universal solution for architectural problems. Recognizing that complexity is the nature of the city, transformational movements take on very different forms.”

Siza, whose full name is Alvaro Joaquim de Meio Siza Vieira, was born on June 25, 1933 in the small coastal town of Matosinhos in the mountainous north of Portugal, a country where it is said that every summit has the Atlantic Ocean as the horizon. Matosinhos is near Porto, an important seaport built on the site of an ancient Roman settlement Portus Cole from which the name Portugal was derived.

Siza studied at the University of Porto School of Architecture from 1949 through 1955, completing his first built work (four houses in Matosinhos) even before ending his studies 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 what is considered to be Europe’s highest architectural honor from the Mies van der Rohe Foundation and the European Economic Community. The latter award was 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 with the Prince of Wales Prize.

The government of Evora, in 1977 following the revolution in Portugal, commissioned Siza to plan a housing project in the rural outskirts of the town. It was to be one of several that he would do for SAAL, the national housing association, consisting of 1200 low-cost, single family row house units, some one-story and some two-story units, all with courtyards.
In 1966, Siza began teaching at the University, and in 1976 was 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 world, from the United States, Colombia and Argentina in the Western Hemisphere to his neighboring Spain, Germany, France, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria and England in Europe.

Recently completed projects in Portugal include mass housing in Evora, a new High School of Education in Setubal, a new School of Architecture for Porto University, a Modern Art Museum for Porto, the rebuilding of a burned area of Lisbon, a new Library for Aveiro University.

In Berlin, his competition winning entry for an apartment building, Schlesisches Tor, Kreuzberg, was recently completed. He has won numerous other competitions including the renovation of Compo di Marte in Venice, the renewal of the Casino and Cafe Winkler, 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 Siza’s work is from swimming pools to mass housing developments, with residences for individuals, banks, office buildings, restaurants, art galleries, shops, virtually every other kind of structure in between.

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, what one feared was in danger of extinction: the heroic spirit of modern architecture.”

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If Post Modernism had not claimed the term, and distorted its meaning, Alvaro Siza’s buildings might legitimately have been called by that name. His architecture proceeds directly from Modernist influences that dominated the field from 1920 to 1970.

While Siza himself would 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 worn materials and shapes; respect for context, whether it is an older building or neighborhood such as the Chiada Quarter in Lisbon, or the rocky edge of the ocean in his swimming club in Porto; and finally, respect for the times in which today’s architect practices with all its constraints and challenges.

Siza’s 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 work is not effected by scale.
Four decades of patient and innovative form-making by Siza have provided unique and credible architectural statements, while at the same time surprising the profession with its freshness.

Siza is a teacher, not only at the university where he obtained his education, but also as a guest lecturer throughout the world, 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 world’s architectural vocabulary and inventory, over the past four decades, provides ample justification to present him with the 1992 Pritzker Architecture Prize, as well as the good wishes of the jury that he continue his transformations.

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