Porto, April 28, 2026 (Lusa) - Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura is to receive the International Union of Architects (UIA) Gold Medal, becoming only the second Portuguese architect to receive this honour, the Portuguese Architects’ Association announced on Tuesday.
The architects’ body, which submitted the Porto-born architect’s nomination, said the award is the highest international honour granted to a living architect and marks a historic milestone for the work of Souto de Moura, for Portugal and for Portuguese architecture.
Created in 1984 by the UIA and awarded every three years, the prize is described by the organisation as the most prestigious distinction awarded to an architect by fellow architects, selected from nominations submitted by professional institutions worldwide.
Previous recipients include Egypt’s Hassan Fathy (1985), India-born Charles Correa (1990), Spain’s Rafael Moneo (1996), Italy’s Renzo Piano (2002), Portugal’s Álvaro Siza Vieira (2011) and Brazil’s Paulo Mendes da Rocha (2021).
This year’s Gold Medal jury consisted of UIA's leader Regina Gonthier, British-Ghanaian architect David Adjaye and Chinese architect Lu Wenyu.
Avelino Oliveira, head of the Portuguese Architects’ Association, said Souto de Moura is the author of a major, disruptive and timeless body of work, adding that the medal marks the culmination of a personal and professional career of extensive architectural output, placing Portugal among the key centres of contemporary architecture.
For the association, this is a moment of international projection that reinforces Portugal’s image as a global reference in architecture today.
Oliveira added that for Portuguese architecture, the award confirms a solid school that is widely recognised and admired.
The Gold Medal will be awarded on June 30 at the Basilica da Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona, as part of the World Congress of Architects.
The Portuguese Architects’ Association will co-host a talk with Spain's Casa da Arquitetura, on July 1 in Barcelona, bringing together Souto de Moura and architects Manuel Aires Mateus and Inês Lobo.
Eduardo Souto de Moura, born in Porto in 1952, has received more than a dozen awards, including the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2018 and the Pritzker Prize in 2011 for his lifetime achievement.
The architect holds several awards, including the 10th Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism in 2016, the Wolf Prize in Arts in 2013, the Prémio Pessoa in 1998 and the award of the International Association of Art Critics in 1996.
In the United States, his career was recognised by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which awarded him the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in 2019.
The Paula Rego House of Stories (Cascais), the Braga Municipal Stadium, the Burgo Tower (Porto), the Graça Morais Contemporary Art Centre (Bragança), the refurbishment of the Grão Vasco National Museum (Viseu) and the interiors of the Chiado Department Store (Lisbon) are among his projects, as is the Serpentine Gallery pavilion in London, created in partnership with Álvaro Siza, with whom he began his career in 1981.
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