Considered one of the five most important contemporary architects in the world, the Portuguese Álvaro Siza created his first project in Brazil to the applause of several specialized engineering and architectural publications on the national and international scene. Chosen to design the Iberê Camargo headquarters in Porto Alegre, the architect has works of his design spread all over Europe – such as the Serralves Museum in the city of Porto and the Galician Center of Contemporary Art in Santiago de Compostela.

Siza was born in 1933, in the city of Matosinhos. Graduated from the School of Architecture of the University of Porto, from early on the architect dedicated himself to the idea of not being a traditionalist, yet without abandoning his roots, constructing a work characterized by the incessant search of something new. Formal complexity and simplicity of design are trademarks of Siza’s projects, with constant efforts at horizontal plans, at the clarity of forms and at the refinement of space.

In the new headquarters of the Iberê Camargo Foundation – defined by Siza as an “almost sculpture” – light, texture, movement and space are carefully explored – which favors the direct relation between the viewer and the work of art, and makes contact with Iberê’s work even richer.

Awarded in more than forty individual exhibits, the architect is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, of the Academie d´Architecture de France and of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. In 1992, he received the Pritzker Prize from the Hyatt Foundation in Chicago for his collection of work. The award is like the Nobel Prize of the arts. Siza actively participated in the most important architectural operations in the world, such as the Barcelona Olympics and the Expo 98 in Lisbon. He was also a member of the team which reconstructed Chiado, the historic center of Lisbon destroyed by a fire in 1988. In 2007 the Brazilian Government awarded him the Cultural Merit Order Medal.