THE ÁLVARO SIZA TALKS 2025
Acesso diário: 5€ (50% de desconto para Amigos de Serralves, estudantes e maiores de 65 anos)
Tradition is a challenge to innovation. It is made of successive grafts.
I am a conservative and a traditionalist, that is to say:
I move between conflicts, compromises, hybridization, transformation.
Álvaro Siza
Each year in November, the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art invites architects, students and those interested in architecture in general to participate, for three consecutive days, in a series of reflections and discussions on contemporary architecture in relation to themes and values present in the work of Álvaro Siza.
In the belief that architecture is a form of conversation, each edition of the event has been conceived as an extended conversation around a theme that helps to centre the exchange of ideas and provide a framework for the sessions. The title proposed for this year's edition of The Álvaro Siza Talks is Conversations between Tradition and Innovation.
The relationship between tradition and innovation is at the heart of all artistic activity, and architecture is no exception. Álvaro Siza's work constantly speaks of this relationship, which becomes a productive tension in his creative process. Each generation must reflect on its relationship with tradition. A tradition that – contrary to what one might think, and as is also the case with true creative freedom – cannot be taken for granted, but must instead be acquired or conquered with effort by each architect or practice. Perhaps one of the defining characteristics of the contemporary condition is the simultaneous presence of multiple traditions.
The work of the architects participating in this year's edition of the Talks raises this discussion – in a more or less conscious way and in different modes, but always with intensity. The opening lecture will be delivered by Wang Shu, and the speakers include Ángela García de Paredes (Paredes Pedrosa, Madrid), Cristina Guedes and Francisco Vieira de Campos (Menos é Mais, Porto), Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton (sauerbruch hutton, Berlin), Camilo Restrepo Ochoa (AGENdA, Medellín) and Paul and Johannes Robbrecht (Robbrecht en Daem, Ghent).
In addition to Álvaro Siza, the Scientific Committee of “The Álvaro Siza Talks” is composed of Eduardo Souto de Moura, Farrokh Derakhshani (Director of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture), Philippe Vergne (Director of the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art) and Carles Muro (coordinator of The Álvaro Siza Talks).
"The Álvaro Siza Talks" are organized by the Serralves Foundation in collaboration with the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
PROGRAMME
12 NOV
7:00PM: WELCOME
7:30PM: OPENING LECTURE, WANG SHU
13 NOV
6:30PM: CRISTINA GUEDES AND FRANCISCO VIEIRA DE CAMPOS (MENOS É MAIS, PORTO)
7:30PM: PAUL AND JOHANNES ROBBRECHT (ROBBRECHT EN DAEM ARCHITECTEN, GHENT)
14 NOV
5:30PM: CAMILO RESTREPO OCHOA (AGENDA, MEDELLÍN)
6:30Pm: ÁNGELA GARCÍA DE PAREDES (PAREDES PEDROSA, MADRID)
7:30PM: LOUISA HUTTON (SAUERBRUCH HUTTON, BERLIN)
The conferences will be in English with simultaneous translation into Portuguese.
Related
(Madrid, Spain, 1958)
Ángela García de Paredes graduated from the Madrid School of Architecture (ETSAM) in 1982, and received a PhD in Architecture, also from the ETSAM, in 2015. Together with Ignacio García Pedrosa, she founded the firm Paredes Pedrosa Arquitectos in 1990. Their built work includes the Valdemaqueda Town Hall, the Valle Inclán Theatre in Madrid, the Archaeology Museum in Almeria, Peñíscola Congress Centre, Espacio Torner in Cuenca, the Olmeda Roman Villa Museum in Palencia, the Ceuta and Córdoba Public Libraries, the Lugo Auditorium and the renovation of the Bank of Spain in Madrid. Paredes Pedrosa's work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Spanish Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts (2014), the Spanish Architecture Prize (2007), the AR Emerging Architecture Award (London, 1999), the Madrid Architecture Prize and the International Gold Medal for Sustainable Architecture and, more recently, their practice has been distinguished with the 2023 Spanish National Award for Architecture. Ángela is Professor of Architectural Design at ETSAM and has recently been elected as a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Spain.