Álvaro Siza. Huellas Encuentros Paseos / Obras 1952-2018
Editors
Ángel Martínez García-Posada
Carlos Quintáns Eiras
Juan Rodríguez
Texts Authors
Ángel Martínez García-Posada
Víctor Pérez Escolano
Carolina B. García-Estévez
José Joaquín Parra Bañón
Beatriz Blanco
Juan Domingo Santos
Álvaro Galmés
Silvia Colmenares
Eduardo Prieto
Inmaculada Maluenda
Enrique Encabo
María Teresa Muñoz
José Manuel López-Peláez
Carmen Moreno Álvarez
Sol89. María González y Juanjo López de la Cruz
Javier Navarro de Pablos
Carlos Seoane
Juan Navarro Baldeweg
Manuel Gallego Jorreto
Photographs
Juan Rodríguez
Publisher
Ministerio de Transportes, Movilidad y Agenda Urbana
Secretaría General Técnica
Centro de Publicaciones
ISBN
978-84-498-1080-0
Year
2022
Pages
Tomo 1: 163 p. / Tomo 2: 318 p.
Link to publisher
Álvaro Siza. Huellas, encuadres y paseos
It is difficult to find a contemporary architect who has generated such widespread consensus among his peers and in the cultural world—even in that other realm inhabited by the fauna, so exotic to many, of the “general public.” The consensus surrounding Siza, and the resonance his work has found in criticism and the media, is such that saying something about the figure and his oeuvre becomes, in itself, a challenge—especially when the aim is to say something new.
An exquisite writer and, in this case, a meticulous editor, Ángel Martínez García-Posada has been well aware of the challenge of the ineffable that loomed over what has ended up becoming the beautiful volume now published as a testament to the somewhat controversial National Architecture Prize awarded to Siza in 2019. For this reason, he has made the book less of a monograph and more of a balanced and unsentimental tribute from Spain—one that does not seek to unveil the value of something already taken for granted, but rather to enrich our perspective through meaningful viewpoints that, in Siza’s own words, appeal as much to reason as to the heart.
In the case of the Portuguese master, this endeavor has relied equally on image and word. Thus, the volume comprises two books that can be understood together, but also independently. The first responds to the idea that the works of a great architect ultimately form a single body of work, and it chronicles Siza’s output from 1958 to 2018 through the lens of photographer Juan Rodríguez, whose black-and-white eye sketches a deeply personal visual interpretation. The second book is made up of eighteen essays by Spanish critics—including, full disclosure, the author of this text—that explore Siza’s work through “traces” (his relationship with Spain), “frames” (from object to landscape), and “walks” (revisiting his buildings), forming a journey that, far beyond any bureaucratic account, composes an excellent and deeply valuable portrait of the Portuguese master.
Eduardo Prieto. Published review of Álvaro Siza.
Huellas, Encuentros, Paseos in Arquitectura Viva No. 254
