In 2014, Álvaro Siza donated his extensive archive of built and unbuilt projects since 1958 to three institutions, ? the Serralves Foundation in Oporto, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon and the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal. Through this exceptional case of international institutional collaboration, the three institutions have committed to the establishment of a joint methodology of archival process and description that will allow collective access to Siza?s significant body of work.
Álvaro Siza in 2012. Photo by Manuel de Sousa via Wikimedia Commons.
With the donation of his archive, Álvaro Siza expressed his ?desire that so many years of work can become useful in many ways, as a contribution to research and debate on architecture, particularly in Portugal and with a perspective opposed to isolation.? As a result he communicated his decision to ?donate to two Portuguese institutions that already have the experience, quality and capacity to develop or enlarge their respective archives with the goal of increasing access, dissemination and active participation in a debate that is no longer simply national nor centred on an individual,? and to ?donate to the CCA in Montreal, an institution of unequalled experience and prestige and with a sustained series of activities ? exhibitions, publications, research, relations with other related institutions and large visibility. As the CCA is recognized for its experience in the preservation and prese...