ÁLVARO SIZA: THE ARCHIVE

ÁLVARO SIZA: THE ARCHIVE

Serralves brings Siza’s Archive to Shanghai in a major exhibition at the Power Station of Art

The Serralves Foundation presents the exhibition Álvaro Siza: The Archive, an extensive retrospective dedicated to the work of one of the leading figures in contemporary architecture and the first Portuguese recipient of the Pritzker Prize.

Álvaro Siza: The Archive, on view at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, China, from June 6 to September 7, 2025, is an adaptation of the acclaimed exhibition C.A.S.A., shown at Serralves in 2024, and stands as the most comprehensive exhibition ever held on Álvaro Siza’s work.

Featuring a renewed curatorial path created specifically for the Power Station of Art, and comprising nearly a kilometer of drawings, models, sculptures, objects, and photographs, Álvaro Siza: The Archive unveils less than 5% of the archive donated by Siza to the Serralves Foundation. It reflects both his extraordinary capacity for work and the creation of an interconnected topography of architectural production, in which projects engage in dialogue with one another over time.

Curated jointly by the Serralves Museum and the Power Station of Art, the exhibition is led by architect António Choupina, with consultancy by Álvaro Siza and Carlos Castanheira. It offers a chronological reading of Siza’s work over ten decades.

The exhibition begins with Siza’s childhood drawings and traverses the various typologies that have defined his path — from Family Homes to Community Houses, Commercial Buildings to Houses of Knowledge, Leisure Spaces, Workspaces, Houses of Faith, Cultural Centers — culminating in Returning Home, with Serralves as the converging point.

Rooted in art, geometry, and beauty, this exhibition presents a portrait of Siza as a true contemporary thinker, whose practice continues to rely on drawing as a tool to reveal the internal mechanisms of architecture and thought.