photograph and copyright manfredi bellati
photograph La Biennale
Venice: Arsenale - 13th International Architecture Biennale Exhibition
Álvaro Siza Vieira - Golden Lion
for Lifetime Achievement. The decision was made by the Board of laBiennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo
Baratta, under director David
Chipperfield who presented the following motivation:
“I am equal
in size to whatever I see,
not hemmed
in by the size I am”
(Fernando
Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet)
“It is
difficult to think of a contemporary architect who has maintained such a
consistent presence within the profession as Álvaro Siza. That this presence is
maintained by an architect that lives and works at the extreme Atlantic margin
of Europe only serves to emphasize his authority and his status.”
Above. Alvaro Siza Vieira’s structure establishes a
relationship with a different aspect of Venice – that of the dense
urban environment. Three faceted walls generate two intimate spaces in the
middle of the garden designed for the Biennale by Piet Oudolf, a tribute
to the compact urban tissue of Venice, which frames particular views of the
exteriors of the Arsenale.