Eduardo Souto de Moura

Over the last three decades, the Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura has produced a series of works that are of our time, but also have echoes of architectural traditions. His work is convincing proof of the expressive potential and adaptability of modern language to different local situations. Always aware of context, understood in its broadest sense, and based on place, time and function, Souto de Moura's architecture reinforces a sense of history while expanding the range of contemporary expression.

Already in his early works, produced in the 1980s, Souto de Moura had a coherent approach that never adopted the trends of the moment. At the time, he was very old-fashioned, having developed his individual path during the heyday of postmodernism. Looking back today, the first constructions may seem normal, but we must remember how daring they were back then.

The versatility of his practice is evident in the variety of assignments he has successfully undertaken. He is capable of designing from the domestic to the urban scale. Many of his early works in the 1980s were single-family dwellings and remain among his seminal works. However, the scope of his work has expanded: the Municipal Stadium of Braga (Portugal), designed in 2000, is imposing, monumental and blends perfectly into its impressive landscape; the Torre Burgo (Portugal), designed in the early 1990s and built a decade later, consists of two adjoining buildings, one vertical and one horizontal, of different scales, which dialogue with each other and with the urban landscape; the Paula Rêgo Museum, completed in 2008, is a set of volumes interspersed among the trees on its site in Cascais, Portugal, which is both civic and intimate, making it suitable for the exhibition of art.

In their apparent formal simplicity, Souto de Moura's buildings weave together complex references to the characteristics of the region, the landscape, the site and the wider architectural history. Simple geometries are often emphasised by a play of solids and voids or light and shadow. The restoration and adaptation of the Monastery of Santa Maria Do Bouro into a hotel has brought a ruble building to reinterpretation. Souto de Moura has created spaces that are coherent with their history and modern in their conception. The effectiveness of his works often derives from the juxtaposition of elements and concepts. His unique ability to embrace reality while employing abstraction creates an architectural language that transforms the physical into the metaphysical.

Souto de Moura is an architect fascinated by the beauty and authenticity of materials. His knowledge of construction and skill with materials is always visible in his buildings. He has the confidence to use ancient stone or to take inspiration from a modern Mies van der Rohe detail. The thoughtful use of copper, stone, concrete and wood in the Porto Cultural Centre, completed in 1991, for example, is a testament to his ability to combine materials expressively. By modifying pavements, textures, paths and public spaces for Porto's metro network, he has given new meaning to public spaces. House Number Two, built in the city of Bom Jesus (Portugal) in 2007, has achieved a rare richness through the subtle bands in the concrete of its exterior walls.

Eduardo Souto de Moura's architecture is not obvious, frivolous or picturesque. It is imbued with intelligence and seriousness. His work requires an intense contact and not a quick glance. And like poetry, it is capable of communicating emotionally to those who take the time to listen. His buildings have a unique ability to convey seemingly contradictory characteristics: power and modesty, bravado and subtlety, public authority and a sense of intimacy at the same time. For his effortless, serene and simple architecture, and for the care and poetry that permeate each project, Eduardo Souta de Moura receives the 2011 Pritzker Architecture Prize.