At the refurbished Diana Bar, which is part of the International Museum of Contemporary Art, an exhibition entitled "Siza, Beyond Póvoa" celebrates not only the well-known Beires and Alves dos Santos houses — the heart of the exhibition — but also the projects that inspired them, such as the courtyard of Casa Rocha Ribeiro in Maia or the sash windows of Casa Alcino Cardoso in Moledo.

It was in Póvoa de Varzim that Álvaro Siza first began to rethink the introverted nature of his architecture, first with the Alves dos Santos House — a bastion that opens onto a private courtyard, a lost paradise — and then with the Beires House, also known as 'Casa Bomba', whose deconstructivist style arose from the desire for a more open dialogue with the surroundings. These apparent ruins are a kind of manifesto for the concept of emptiness. The theme of the courtyard is also present in the 2019 exhibition, which showcases the unbuilt Eça de Queiroz Cultural Centre for the first time.