Sitting on the second floor of the Serralves Museum in Porto, Álvaro Siza Vieira looks quite at home. And so the illustrious architect should. The prized building – designed by him for his hometown – is celebrating its 15th successful year, as well as the 25th anniversary of the Serralves Foundation which supports it. Located in the 44-acre Serralves Park, the museum is cited as one of the most important cultural institutes in Portugal.

Anniversaries such as this are a time for reflection and, at 81 years of age, Siza has plenty of experiences to draw upon. Is there anything he would change if tasked with the same project now? ‘I am sure I would make a different building,’ Siza states frankly. ‘Not because I don’t like this one, but because I am different. I have a different state of mind.’ Growing up or growing older is not the only reason the building would potentially have a different character, had it been built now. 'When this was built, there was no financial crisis,' says Siza. 'If the crisis had happened back then, perhaps this building would not be here.’

The Serralves Museum is one of a number of examples from Siza’s portfolio in Porto. Along the waterfront of Leça da Palmeira, locals still enjoy his Piscinas das Marés, a swimming facility with two natural pools filled with fresh sea water. Just down the road, Siza’s first professional project Casa de Cha da Boa Nova sits 300 metres from the seafront. Built between 1958 and 1963, the building was originally a tea house but in recent years fell into disrepair. ‘It had to be cleaned up,’ Siza explains. ‘Over the course of a year, water started coming in through the windows, people were breaking the glass and robbing things’. Tasked with the renovation of the building – classified as a National Monument in 2009 – Siza had to adhere to strict guidelines on his own design. Not that it really effected his approach. ‘I didn’t want to change anything, I couldn’t anyway,’ he says. ‘You cannot change a building made more than 50 years ago. If I change one thing, I must change another. And if that is the case I should demolish the building and make a different one.’

serralves.pt/en/