This book reflects on Álvaro Siza's "Design Principles", based on his own words and his extensive work. The book, edited by Teresa Cunha Ferreira, is organized in two interrelated parts: the first, on Álvaro Siza's fundamental principles as guidelines that apply to the author's body of work; the second, on the design principles of the Piscina de Marés, reveals how the former can be applied on a case-by-case basis to the singular work, permeated by a common conceptual and methodological horizon.

With a foreword by Professor Kenneth Frampton, one of the world's leading architectural thinkers.

Álvaro Siza is one of the most emblematic architects of the 20th century, and one of the names that Portugal is associated with anywhere in the world, winner of the Pritzker Prize in 1992. It was in 1991 that Álvaro Siza was invited to design the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, which opened in 1999.

Strongly influenced by the works of architects Adolf Loos, Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar Aalto, he soon managed to develop his own language, steeped not only in international modernist references but also in the strong Portuguese building tradition, which resulted in works of great refinement and detail in Portuguese modernism, including the Boa Nova Tea House in Leça da Palmeira. Not unrelated to this is his close relationship with the architect Fernando Távora, his teacher and one of the main references of the Porto School, with whom he collaborated from 1955 to 1958, later developing a strong friendship and creative complicity. He created real landmarks in the history of Portuguese and international architecture, influencing several generations of architects.