Vieira, Álvaro Siza

(1933- )

   Architect of world renown, designer of many public buildings, including the Portuguese Pavilion at Lisbon's Expo '98, Portugal's end-of-the-century world's fair. Born in Matosinhos, near Oporto, from an early age Siza was fascinated with the art of drawing, a lifetime's vocation. Trained as an architect at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Oporto, Siza began to win commissions for various public places, including opportunities to design parks, churches, swimming pools, and residences of various kinds. Following early work in sculpture and watercolor, he devoted his professional efforts solely to creating a new architecture, under the influence of Oporto instructors as well as foreign architects, including the work of the revolutionary Le Corbusier of France. Among his more emblematic, minimalist works is the Church of Marco de Canavezes. The recipient of the most sought-after architectural prizes from various countries, and the architect of Expo '98's impressive Portuguese Pavilion, Siza's greatest professional honor to date is the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in architecture, the coveted Pritzker Prize, from the Hyatt Foundation, in Chicago.