Siza Vieira studies, between 1949 and 1995, at the School of Fine Arts of Porto, where he taught from 1966 to 1969, returning in 1976 (always as an assistant teacher). Strongly influenced by the work of the architects Adolf Loos, Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar Aalto, he soon managed to develop its own language, not only steeped in international modernism references as well as strong Portuguese Constructive traditions, which results in unmatched refined constructions Portuguese modernism, among which we can nomine the Tea House in Noa Nova – Leça da Palmeira. To this, is not alien the close relationship with the architect Fernando Távora, his teacher, and one of the main reference of Porto School, with whom he collaborate since 1955 to 1958, developing among this years a strong friendship and creative complicity.
Siza has created true piece of art in Portuguese architecture history. Take a look at the "Piscinas de Marés”, or the Serralves Museum, the Church of "Marco de Canaveses”, or more recently, the museum for "Fundação Iberê Camargo, in Porto Alegre in Brazil, where Alvaro Siza returns to one of his strongest influences, the Corbusier. And this is, shall we say, the main talent of Siza, reinterpreting or even redesigned, seeking a language which, until then, had been showing some notes on recent works of formal complexity coupled with an apparent simplicity of design.
His works are foounde throughout the world, from America to Asia, passing through countries like Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Brazil, South Korea, United States, among others. In Netherlands, Siza Viera ran from 1985 to 1989 the rehabilitation Plan of the Zon 5 of Schilderswijk, in Haia. In 1995, he completed the design of the blocks 6-7-8 in the Ceramique Terrein, in Maastrich. He helped in the reconstruction of the Chiado zone in Lisbon, destroyed by a fire in 1988. He also developed in Spain the project for the Villa Olimpica Meteorological Center in Barcelona, the "Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea” and the "Faculdade de Ciências da Informação, in Santiago de Compostela; the rector of the "Universidade de Alicante; the Zaida building, in Granada; and the Complexo Desportivo Ribero Serralo, in Cornellá de Llobregat.
Siza was also a visiting / invited professor at the "Escola Politécnica Federal de Lausana”, in the Pennsylvania University, in Los Andes University in Bogotá, and in Harvard University.
