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Home > International VELUX Award > About IVA 2012 > Jury > Alvaro Siza

Alvaro Siza

Alvaro Siza, Portugal
Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza is considered Portugal's greatest living architect. Over the last five decades Álvaro Siza, now 74, has steadily assembled a body of work that ranks him among the greatest architects of his generation. His works are internationally renowned for their coherence, clarity, and what Siza calls ‘simplism’ - a quality that recognizes the complexity and contradictions of a project without trying to impose artificial control over them.
In addition to his major design projects, Siza remains deeply committed to teaching. He has participated in numerous conferences and seminars throughout Europe, North and South America, and Japan. He has been a visiting professor at the Ecole Polytechnique of Lausanne, the University of Pennsylvania, the Los Andes School, the University of Bogota, and Harvard University's Graduate School of Design as Kenzo Tange Visiting Professor.
 
Siza's distinguished work has been widely recognized. In 1988, Siza received the Gold Medal for Architecture from the Colegio de Architectos, Madrid, the Gold Medal from the Alvar Aalto Foundation, the Prince of Wales Prize in Urban Design from Harvard University, and the European Architectural Award from the EEC/Mies van der Rohe Foundation, Barcelona. In 1992, he was awarded the prestigious Pritzker Prize from the Hyatt Foundation of Chicago, for lifetime achievement. That same year, Siza was also named Doctor Honoris Causa at the University of Valencia. In 1993, he won the National Prize of Architecture from the Portuguese Architects Association and was named Doctor Honoris Causa at the Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne. In 1996, he received the honorary title of Fellow, American Institute of Architects.
 
Among his most famous works are the Church of Macro de Canaveses, Portugal, 1996; the New Orleans Building, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2010; Llobregat Sports Centre, Barcelona, Spain, 2006; Meteorology Service Building, Port Olímpic, Barcelona, Spain, 1990-92; EXPO '98 - Portuguese Pavilion; Galician Museum of Art, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 1984; Schlesisches Tor Apartments, Kreuzberg, Germany, 1980