In recognition of his oeuvre and career achievements, the jury of this year's 13th Venice Architecture Biennale gave its coveted Golden Lion Award to Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira.
In the opinion of the jurors, "Siza has sustained a constant production at the highest levels without any attempt at self-promotion. Working in a direction opposite to the mainstream of the profession, he has challenged with untainted tenacity its very practical and intellectual foundations."
Experimenting with the forms of an extreme geometry, Siza designs highly rigorous buildings and has developed an intensely personal architectural language. Viewers are dazzled by the lightness of his works, but also feel the weight of the materials he employs.
Among Siza's most representative works are the Faculty of Architecture and the Serralves Foundation building in Porto, the Centro Gallego de Arte Contemporáneo in Santiago de Compostela (Spain), and the Iberê Camargo Foundation building in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
The award will be presented on August 29th, at the opening of the architecture exhibition to be held in Venice through November 25th.