“Magazines often resisted printing heroic images of houses constructed by Siza and others. These are, above all, poor houses, transformed by the architectural bravura of small interventions. The interventions come out of an ability to work with little, to use ruins, desolate spaces, a single wall, the earth, and to turn these into new tools of design and construction (…) an acute sensibility to traces and materials, to the deposits of time and events, the existing plans, and incidents of nature an history arise.” This is how Daniele Vitale speaks of Álvaro Siza in what is his debut on the pages of Domus, in issue 655, in October 1984.

Born in 1933 in Matosinhos, where already at a young age, on the cliffs of Leça da Palmeira, he would create the memorable Boa Nova restaurant and the Tidal Pools, Álvaro Joaquim de Melo Siza Vieira is one of the protagonists of the so-called Porto School, a link between the theoretical reflection of Fernando Távora and the cultured pragmatism of Eduardo Souto de Moura. And it is precisely these two strands that generate the double helix of the DNA of his work, which is nourished by an enduring passion for the sculptural aspects of volume, often achieved through subtraction of matter or plastic tension of gesture. Alongside talent, there is always a refined sensitivity to the contingencies of the context in which his architectures harmoniously fit, oscillating between the exaltation of the traces of the ground, the respect for altimetric levels, or the courageous confrontation with the language of neighboring bodies. This pronounced contextualism, however, is permeable to contemporary innovations, an aspect that prompts Kenneth Frampton to identify Siza as one of the most acute proponents of critical regionalism, the architectural trend that made Modern dogmas react to local rooting and typological memory.

With thirty years of professional career behind him, Álvaro Siza had already established himself when Domus published his first project in 1984, the Borges & Irmao Bank in Vila do Conde, as part of a feature on Portuguese architecture. The bank is built by contrast with a pure volume that confronts the nearby church, aqueduct, and monastery. A few years later, Siza realized the Carlos Ramon Pavilion, the first piece of the new Faculty of Architecture at the University of Porto. In dialogue with Siza through sketches and graphic annotations (Domus 679, January 1987), Francesco Venezia introduces the pavilion as “an eroic clash between an idea of imposition and a reality already formed which opposes and resists that idea.” Themes dear to the Portuguese school emerge, such as the system of morphological relationships imprinted on the ground that determine access sequences, walls, pergolas, floors, as well as a more Siza-esque trait: that of the compositional process through subtraction and the mutilated box with cuts. Within 8 years, his Faculty of Architecture would appear on the banks of the Douro with its “four imposing totemic figures that scrutinize and control the territory” (Luca Gazzaniga, Domus 770, April 1995).

Francesco Venezia in Domus 679, January 1987

There is no doubt that among the works that have determined professional recognition and media success, a key role is played by the project for the redevelopment of the Chiado area in Lisbon. Following the fire that devastated three blocks of Chiado in Lisbon in August 1988, Siza was commissioned to develop a recovery project. The proposal is exemplary in the way it addresses the relationship between historical remains and new construction and in its ability to read the city in all its nuanced complexities. Domus discussed it in issue 714, March 1990, and 1005, September 2016, featuring Siza's sketch on the cover, such was the appeal aroused by the topic.

1992 marked the year of consecration: Siza won the Pritzker Prize, becoming one of the cornerstones of contemporary architecture on a global level. His scope widened, embracing design themes and geographies not yet explored. He experimented with sacred architecture (Domus 802, March 1998; Domus 813, March 1999, and Domus 1023, April 2018) and ephemeral architecture, such as the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion (Domus 884, September 2005), never relinquishing the theme of housing, a vein he had pursued since his early experiences in social housing in the 1970s. Later, his villas, whether nestled in the natural landscapes of Sintra (Domus 913, April 2008) or in the familiar urban landscapes of Porto (Domus 974, November 2013), once again testified to his great sensitivity to the peculiarities of the context.

Kenneth Frampton, Domus 913, April 2008

In addition to his passion for sculpture, Siza has been an indefatigable draftsman. His sketches are often extracted from the creative flow to which they belong to become fetishes, simulacra of the design phenomenon elevated (or reduced) to art (or merchandise) in itself. The migration from the laborious architectural act to a lighter artistic dimension has also been supported by Domus for the realization of the covers of issues 714, March 1990, and 974, November 2013.

Siza’s contextualism engages with very diverse places. Domus has gathered three experiences in the Netherlands, on issues 696, July 1988, 705, May 1989, and 853, November 2002; where he respectively tackled the theme of urban block regeneration, residential buildings combined with commercial spaces, and urban landmarks. Introducing the complex project for two residences with associated commercial space in The Hague (Domus 705), Umberto Barbieri spoke of Siza remarking how “a presence insists on the manual character of architecture, on its social dimension, and, last but not least, on a personal almost artistic interpretation of the modern idiom, which is elaborated by means of collage and at the same time influenced by elements deriving from dialects and from the site”.
There is also a Chinese Siza who designed office headquarters on water for a local company (Domus 988, February 2015) and the MoAE-Huamao, Museum of Art Education in Ningbo (Domus 1053, January 2021), projects where once again dominated by his his sculptural sensitivity.

Alvaro Siza, Domus 1049, September 2020

In September 2022 (Domus 1071), Peter Testa gathered Siza’s sketches for the Villa Getty project, illustrating how the portuguese architects refines his project through gestures of anticipation and memory in A4 sketchbooks. A unique working method that illustrates the principles of his architecture. It’s another opportunity to affirm how those hastily sketched, often on fortunate supports and escaped from the jaws of shredders, are an indelible component of Siza’s work.