Life-story interview with this “universal figure in the History of Architecture”

A major life-story interview with architect Álvaro Siza Vieira, conducted by journalist Fátima Campos Ferreira. Includes a preface by Eduardo Souto de Moura, illustrations by Álvaro Siza Vieira and a photographic section.

“The dialogue is always essential and spartan, much like the work itself. Architect Souto de Moura once compared him to a savannah lioness, for his insistence on observation and his care in protecting his young. Siza shrugs and carries on. The cigarettes, or what remains of them, have filled the ashtray and the air is saturated with tobacco.

He lives for everyone and for himself, and seems little concerned with happiness, knowing that, as it is dreamed of, it is nothing more than a myriad of illusions. Life is something else. It is dignity and integrity. It is care for others, it is Art. And, of course, the dream — always the dream — as Álvaro Siza Vieira is, after all, an architect of dreams!”

Maria de Fátima Barbosa Campos Ferreira was born in Lisbon and raised in Valença do Minho. She graduated in History from the Faculdade de Letras do Porto, complementing her studies with courses in Art History. After teaching at the Instituto de Preparação para a Universidade, she enrolled at the Escola Superior de Jornalismo do Porto and became a journalist at RTP in 1986. Throughout her career, she presented news programmes, interviews and the programme Prós&Contras for 18 years, becoming a prominent figure in Portuguese society.