Design Process

Periodically, during the process of a project, I take home the drawings and I need to concentrate not only on designing and sketching things, but on really knowing the building, really knowing the project. I have to be able to walk through the whole building mentally without looking at the drawings, you know?

I have to be able to sit and imagine walking through the building, going down each hall, entering the bathroom, washing my hands, going to the kitchen if it is a house.

But I make every effort to study the project as it develops.

by Alvaro Siza

Architecture is Art

I was very interested in Antoni Gaudi because when I compared the building in real life to the photographs of this famous architecture I said this was like sculpture. In fact I think I was more interested in it as sculpture than as architecture. When I arrived and saw it with m own eyes, I saw that this sculpture was actually houses and had all of the elements of a regular house: doors, windows, baseboards. So this in a way opened the world of architecture up to me. Before I could see work as sculpture, but now I could see it as architecture.

by Alvaro Siza

A Good Architect Works Slowly

No matter what machinery you devise there are quite simply no shortcuts one can take in the process of finding solutions for architectural problems.

The wealth of mutual relations between all the different aspects—for instance, the precise articulation of spaces—that is something that does not just happen by itself.

A good architect works slowly.

As far as I’m concerned, when I think of architecture, I think primarily of stability, serenity, and presence.

You have to define your position in the midst of this glut of information. The more information I can assimilate, the more serene my architecture becomes.

by Alvaro Siza