Álvaro Siza

Born 1933 · Portuguese · 15 buildings on the wall

Álvaro Siza (born 1933) is a Portuguese architect from Matosinhos, near Porto, known for buildings that read and answer their landscape and city. "Architects do not invent anything," he has said, "they transform reality." He graduated from the Porto school of architecture in 1955 and later taught there with Fernando Távora. He won the Pritzker Prize in 1992 and the Venice Biennale's Golden Lion for lifetime achievement in 2012.

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Among his earliest works to gain public attention, the Leça Swimming Pools (1966) are tidal pools on the shore at Leça da Palmeira. The Boa Nova Tea House (1963) sits among the rocks, reached by a stepped path that hides and reveals the sea. The Faculty of Architecture, University of Porto (1996) and the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art (1999) are among his best-known works in Porto. He designed the Portugal Pavilion for Expo '98 in Lisbon, and the Iberê Camargo Foundation in Porto Alegre (2008), his first project in Brazil, won a Golden Lion at the 2002 Venice Biennale. Álvaro Siza's projects are studied for how a building can grow out of its site, light and views.

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