Het Huis Stoclet in Brussel - Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten Aalst

J) Alvaro Siza
Álvaro Joaquim Melo Siza Vieira was born in Matosinhos (Portuguese only) near
Oporto, Portugal, in 1933. From 1949-55 he studied at the Escola de Belas Artes in
Oporto, his first design built in 1954. From 1955-58 Siza worked with the architect
Fernando Tavora. He taught at the School of Architecture (ESBAP) from 1966-69 and was
appointed Assistant Professor of Construction in 1976.
He has been a Visiting Professor at the Ecole Polythechnique of Lausanne, the
University of Pennsylvania, the Los Andes School in Bogota and at the Graduate School of
Design of Harvard University as Kenzo Tange Visiting Professor. He continues to teach at
the Oporto School of Architecture.
Among many current designs, 1200 homes are now being built in Malagueira,
Evora, with the designs for the Setubal College of Education, the Oporto Faculty of
Architecture and Aveiro University Library nearing completion. Further on-going designs
include the Galicia Museum of Contemporary Art in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, the
Oporto Modern Art Museum and, recently, a major mixed-use development in Boavista,
Oporto. He has been co-ordinating the Schilderswijk Zone 5 Renovation Plan in The
Hague, Holland, since 1985, and is drawing up a scheme for blocks 6-7-8 in Ceramique
Terrein, Maastricht. He is also supervising reconstruction of the fire-damaged area of
Chiado in Lisbon. Other major works include the Praca de Espanha/Avenida Malhoa Master
Plan in Lisbon and the design for the Meteorological Centre of the Olympic Village in
Barcelona.
Álvaro Siza's works have been exhibited in Copenhagen (1975), Aarhus and
Barcelona (1976), the Biennale of Venice (1978), Milan (1979), the Museum of
Architecture in Helsinki and the Alvar Aalto Museum, Finland (1982), the Georges
Pompidou Centre, Paris (1982), the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, and the
Stichting Wonen, Amsterdam (1983), Technische Hogenschool, Delft, ESBAP and Almada
Negreiros Gallery, Lisbon (1984), International Building Exhibition, Berlin (1984 and 1987),
Biennale of Paris and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (1985), 9H
Gallery, London (1986), Columbia University, New York (1987), Harvard Graduate School
of Design, Cambridge (1988), Georges Pompidou Centre, Paris, and MOPU
Gallery/Ministério de Obras Publicas, Madrid (1990), RIBA, London (1991), Colegio de
Arquitectos, Seville (1991), deSingel Gallery, Antwerp (1992), Rui Alberto Gallery, Oporto,
the MOPU, Madrid, the DESSA gallery, Ljubljana/Slovenia (1993), Colegio de Arquitectos,
Granada and Seville, Sala de Risco, Lisbon (1994).