Álvaro Siza Vieira

Álvaro Siza's architecture is a delight for the senses and uplifts the spirit. Every line and every curve is placed with skill and precision.

Like the early modernists, his forms, moulded by light, have an apparent simplicity; they are real. They directly solve design problems. If shade is required, an overhanging plane is placed to provide it. If a view is desired, a window is constructed. In a Siza building, stairs, ramps and walls seem to be predetermined. However, this simplicity is revealed as a great complexity. There is a subtle mastery underlying what appear to be natural creations. To paraphrase Siza's own words, his creations are a response to a problem, a situation in transformation, in which he participates.

If postmodernism had not reclaimed the term and distorted its meaning, Álvaro Siza's buildings could legitimately have been called that. Its architecture derives directly from the modernist influences that dominated the countryside from the 1920s to the 1970s.

Although Siza himself would reject categorisation, his architecture, as an extension of modernist principles and aesthetic sensibility, is also an architecture of several aspects: respect for the traditions of his native Portugal, a country of time-worn materials and forms; respect for the context, whether it is an old building or neighbourhood such as the Chiada district in Lisbon, or the rocky edge of the ocean at his swimming club in Porto; and, finally, respect for the times in which the architect practices today, with all its limitations and challenges.

Siza's characteristic attention to spatial relationships and the appropriateness of form are as relevant to a single-family residence as they are to a much larger social housing complex or office building.

The essence and quality of his work is not affected by scale.

Four decades of patient and innovative form creation by Siza have provided unique and credible architectural statements, while surprising the profession with their freshness.

Siza teaches, not only at the university where he studied, but also as a guest lecturer all over the world, fuelling the intense interest that his designs generate, particularly in the younger generation.

Siza argues that architects do not invent anything, but transform themselves in response to the problems they encounter. His enrichment of the world's architectural vocabulary and inventory over the past four decades is sufficient justification for awarding him the 1992 Pritzker Architecture Prize. The jury also wishes him all the best for his continued transformation.