Madrid, Sept. 17, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal, and in particular the work of architect Álvaro Siza Vieira, will be the focus of this year's Madrid International Architecture Week, between 3 and 13 October, the organisers announced on Wednesday.
"We are dedicating this week of architecture to the master Siza Vieira, the master of us all. My generation, those of us who are 60 years old and have been in the world of architecture for 40 years, is a generation that learned from Álvaro Siza, as a teacher, as an architect, as a remodeller of the social fabric in many of the Spanish and Portuguese cities where he worked," said the dean of the Official College of Architects of Madrid (COAM) and president of the COAM Architecture Foundation, Sigfrido Herráez, at a press conference in the Spanish capital.
The work of Siza Vieira, "one of the most important figures in the history of architecture", in the words of Sigfrido Herráez, is the focus of the main exhibition of the 22nd Madrid International Architecture Week, as well as debates and conferences in the programme presented today.
Portugal is the guest country at this Madrid Architecture Week and the programme includes other initiatives in addition to those dedicated to Siza Vieira, focusing on contemporary Portuguese architecture, "new emerging talents" and names such as Eduardo Souto de Moura and Nuno Portas.
The exhibition on the work of Siza Vieira, entitled ‘Siza’, will be held at the COAM building in the centre of Madrid between 3 October and 9 January 2026, and is the result of a collaboration with the Lisbon-based Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
It is a retrospective of the work of the Portuguese architect, winner of the 1992 Pritzker Prize (the world's highest award in architecture), which brings to Madrid part of the exhibition of the same name that was in Lisbon, at the Gulbenkian, last year, curated by Carlos Quintans.
The exhibition in Madrid, like the one in Lisbon, is "focused on the role of drawing in the work of Siza Vieira" and is once again curated by Carlos Quintans, according to COAM.
The 22nd Madrid International Architecture Week dedicates two more exhibitions to Portugal: “Alvalade” and "What is missing. 50 years of Portuguese architecture in democracy".
The first, which will be in the garden of the COAM building between 3 and 12 October, is a photographic exhibition by artist Federico Clavarino on the Alvalade neighbourhood in Lisbon.
The second is an exhibition organised by Casa da Arquitetura - Portuguese Centre for Architecture in the context of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April revolution which toppled Portugal's dictatorship regime and will be on display in the COAM gallery between 3 and 31 October.
Alongside the exhibitions, the programme for the 22nd Madrid International Architecture Week includes the colloquium ‘The obsession with design: the architecture of Álvaro Siza’, a tribute to architect Nuno Portas and a session dedicated to three ‘young Portuguese studios’ (BRANCOFELRI, MASSLAB and OODA) entitled 'Portugal, adaptive architecture. Transforming the built space and the territory‘.
There will also be a conference with Portuguese architects Eduardo Souto de Moura and Camilo Rebelo on ’Attentive views from proximity‘ and a ’Porto - Madrid dialogue‘ attended by the mayor of the Porto city council, Rui Moreira, who intends to address the "major urban planning" underway in both cities.
Madrid International Architecture Week is an annual initiative of COAM, the foundation of the same name, and the city council, and this year's edition is the result of a collaboration with the Portuguese Embassy in Spain, among other entities.
The official residence of the Portuguese ambassador in Madrid, the former palace of the Dukes of Híjar, built in the early 20th century, is one of 60 buildings in the city that will be open for guided tours with architects throughout the architecture week.
The 22nd Madrid International Architecture Week includes a cultural programme with 320 activities, including exhibitions, conferences, concerts and guided tours. Alongside Siza Vieira, it also pays tribute to Spanish architect Luis Gutiérrez on the 125th anniversary of his birth.
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