The ideas and creative processes of the architecture of Álvaro Siza. The evolution of an idea for museum design in the era of globalization.
The aim of this book is to highlight the ideas and creative processes of the architecture of Álvaro Siza, through a close and unconventional combination of text, photographs, signed sketches and technical drawings. Siza is universally recognized as one of the greatest geniuses of contemporary architecture. The two works examined in the book are the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art at Porto, in Portugal, and the Iberê Camargo Museum at Porto Alegre, in Brazil. Despite the fact that they were designed in different years and for very different settings, the two museums have strong similarities in terms of composition and style. Following a uniform style over the years, Siza has always sought to imitate the settings of his buildings, or, as he himself says, “to achieve a feeling of natural spontaneity in the finished building”. The common factor shared by the museums in Porto and Porto Alegre is precisely this care in the design with regard to the setting of the building and the efforts taken to ensure that the stylistic features of the building create a rapport with it, through a design that is culturally valid, with a cultural foundation. Ambivalence is an essential factor in Siza’s works. If we look closely at the two museums, we can understand the various stages of his architectural activity. Viewing his sketches and his technical drawings and, through photography, the state-of-the-art consistency of the two museums offers a completely new interpretation of Siza’s work, which stems from the great architectural tradition of the Iberian peninsula and the Mediterranean.