ABSTRACT
The first years of the internationalisation of the architect Álvaro Siza, since his “discovery” by Italian criticism in the early 1970s until the award of the Pritzker Prize in 1992, have enshrined the image of a traditional and relatively marginal architect in the face of important debates in the architectural culture of the time. During this period, the critical reception of his work was guided by the widespread idea that, initiated under the premises of the critical revision of the Modern Movement – that in Portugal had the architect Nuno Portas one of the main protagonists – his work had no theoretical dimension, did not reveal great monumental and technological achievements, and insisted on the artisanal character of architecture. This article intends to show that Siza occupied a unique position in the architectural culture of those years when participating actively in the discussion of the disciplinary autonomy that at the time dominated the debates of Postmodernism in the United States and Europe.
