After having worked for Alvaro Siza for five years, Eduardo Souto de Moura opens his own office in 1980. Already in his first works, his approach was consistent. He never adopted the trends of the moment. “As we look back today, says the Pritzker jury, the early buildings may seem ‘normal’, but we must remember how brave they really were back then.” This minimalism is the characteristic of his whole architectural production.
During the past three decades, the architect has produced numerous works with a contemporary feeling mixed with a close respect for the context related to land,time and function. These works mostly situated in his native Portugal, but also in Spain, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom and Switzerland, offer a great variety of typologies, scales and programs.Souto de Moura’s main concern is the coexistence of man and nature. It is why his private houses are fully integrating in the retaining walls. The house built in Bom Jesus (Braga) is very interesting because of its special concrete and exterior walls finishing.
“Because the site was a fairly steep hill overlooking the city of Braga, recalls the architect, we decided to place the construction on five terraces with retainer walls, with a specific function for each terrace - fruit trees on the lowest level, then a swimming pool, the main parts of the house, bedrooms and on the top, we planted a forest.”
Often described as an adept of Mies van der Rohe, Eduardo Souto de Moura has designed many residences with an outstanding simplicity, elegance and the use of unquestionable quality materials (local marble and wood, concrete, glass and metal). The beauty and authenticity of materials have always fascinated the architect. His knowledge of construction activity and his skill with materials are quite obvious.. The Cultural Center in Porto, for example, is a token of his ability to expressively combine materials: copper, stone, concrete or wood. By modifying pavements, textures, the streets and the public spaces for the Porto subway, he has granted a new importance to public spaces.
When he built the Braga stadium, one of his major works, he extracted from the site more than one million cubic meters of granite which were crushed and incorporated in the concrete used for building the stadium. A cut-out section of the mountain even helped to create a granite wall of 30 meters high to close one end of the stadium.The Pritzker jury citation calls this work, “a monumental project very well integrated in its landscape.” Another one of his projects, the Burgo Tower, completed in 2007 in Porto opens on a large square surrounded by two buildings, one vertical and the other horizontal. The main interest of these two buildings designed with simple shapes is their skin made of one single module creating at the same time a glass and an opaque façade. The Paulo Regio Museum shows a grouping of volumes scattered in the trees on the Cascais site. As usual all the Souto de Moura’s buildings with their apparent formal simplicity web close links with the landscape. The architect says: “I proposed a set of volumes of different heights. The game between the nature and what’s artificial helped to create the red color used for the concrete. Two large pyramids along the entrance axis prevent the project from being a neutral sum of boxes.” The restoration of the Santa Maria Do Bouro Monastery originally built in the 12th century and its rehabilitation into a hotel created new spaces that are compatible with their history and of a quite modern conception. The Eduardo Souto de Moura’s architecture is intelligent and serious. “His work requires an intense encounter not a quick glance, says the Jury. And like poetry, it is able to communicate emotionally to those who take the time to listen.”
1. Eduardo Souto de Moura
© Luis Ferreira Alves
2. House in “Bom Jesus”, Braga (1989-94)
© photo Gérard Dufresne
3. Conversion of the Santa Maria do Bouro Convent into a State Inn, Amares, (1989-97)
© Luis Ferreira Alves
4. Burgo Tower, Porto (1991-2007)
© Christian Richters
5. Burgo Project, Porto (1991-2007) - detail
© Luis Ferreira Alves
6. House in Serra da Arrábida (1994-2002)
© Luis Ferreira Alves
7. Braga Stadium (2000-2003)
© Luis Ferreira Alves
8. Paula Rêgo Museum, Cascais (2005-2009)
© Luis Ferreira Alves
