Siza Vieira, Álvaro Joaquim Melo( 1933 )
Process sketch, Galician Center for Contemporary Art, Santiago de Compostela, SpainThe recipient of numerous awards, including the 1992 Pritzker Prize, this architect is known to the
world as Álvaro Siza. His architecture appears to reflect the white boxes of modernism, but upon fur-
ther inspection, one can view how his buildings inspire through the conscious interplay of form and
shadow.
Siza was born in Matosinhos, near Porto, Portugal. He studied at the School of Architecture,
University of Porto ( 1949 – 1955 ). Beginning a practice while still in school, he completed his first pro-
ject in 1954. Many of his early buildings were designed in collaboration with the architect Fernando
Távora ( 1955 – 1958 ). Siza’s practice, over the last fifty years, has specialized primarily in domestic pro-
jects, schools, and exhibition spaces. A few of these buildings include the Bouça Housing Project
( 1973 – 1977 ); a high school, Setúbal ( 1986 – 1994 ); Meteorological Centre in the Olympic Village,
Barcelona ( 1989 – 1992); Museum of the Serralves Foundation, Porto ( 1991 – 1999 ); and the Portuguese
Pavilion for Expo 98 , Lisbon ( 1997 – 1998 ). With honors too numerous to fully list, the Portuguese
Architects Association gave him the National Prize of Architecture in 1993. Siza has also been
awarded with the Praemium Imperiale by the Japan Art Association ( 1998 ), Premio Internazionale di
Architettura Sacra by Fondazione Frate Solein Pavia ( 2000 ), and the International Medal of Arts by
Consejera de las Artes in Madrid ( 2002 ).^28
This sketch for the Centro Galego Arte Contemporanea (CGAC – Galician Centre for
Contemporary Art) reflects Siza’s concern for the exterior massing and façade articulation of this
building. He writes that the project represents a study of volumes, materials and language. In this pro-
ject he is concerned with the small site, and the various scales and significance of the surrounding
structures. The program that designated exhibition space, auditorium, and cafeteria and service areas
is shown in the separation of volumes by the various functional spaces.
Having viewed several of Siza’s design sketches, this sketch (Figure 8. 23 ) conveys his typical process
where he stacks numerous perspectives on one sheet. Several of the views show the building from a
distance emphasizing how the building sits on the terrain. The variations on a theme overlap where a
new thought possessed him, ignoring the image beneath. Not necessarily the result of scarce availabil-
ity of paper, the dense proximity of the sketches probably allowed Siza to constantly reference either
the overall form of the building or the earlier alternative solutions.
The sketches appear to be thoughtful studies rather than first abstract impressions. This shows in the
techniques of texture (drawing the separate pieces of granite on the façade) and light accentuating the
surface materials. The low perspective angle of the sketch on the upper left demonstrates the monu-
mentality of the bold forms. This study sketch appears to have been concerned with the joining of the
volumes and the understanding of solid/void relationships, not necessarily the first organizational dia-
grams. Each sketch has been thoroughly articulated as if he needed to participate with its construction.
This intense ability to see as part of a design process can be connected to understanding as Siza writes:
‘There are two different words in Portuguese that mean “to look” and “to see and understand” (olhar
and ver). The tool of an architect is to be able to see.’^29 Less about an immediate impression the sketches
contain a certain pondering that reveals their volumetric interaction.H5719-Ch08.qxd 7/15/05 3:53 PM Page 255