The Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura will receive yet another international recognition for his career. On October 20th, the Circle of Fine Arts of Madrid or Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid (CBA) will award the architect the Gold Medal, its highest distinction. This tribute not only adds to Souto de Moura's extensive list of accolades, which includes the 2011 Pritzker Prize and the 2013 Wolf Prize, among others but also represents an expression of appreciation from the world of culture and the arts for a career and body of work that transcend architecture and "reach the dimension of poetry through the acceptance of the technical demands of buildings
Eduardo Souto de Moura's collection, spanning 40 years of professional activity, has been under the care of the Casa da Arquitectura of Portugal since 2019. This archive, of immeasurable value to the history of architecture, embodies the significance and legacy of Souto de Moura in the professional field. The presentation of the Gold Medal by CBA is yet another affirmation of the global influence and lasting impact that Souto de Moura's work has on the world of culture and the arts, highlighting his contribution to human development through architecture.
Born in the city of Porto, he graduated in architecture from the School of Fine Arts of Porto and began his career working with Álvaro Siza, with whom he maintains a very rich professional relationship to this day. His work is often associated with a supposed Miesian influence, but his projects reveal a unique virtuosity in the choice of materials – granite, wood, marble, brick, steel, concrete, and glass are just some of the textures that make up Souto de Moura's palette.
For me, architecture is a global issue. There is no ecological architecture, or intelligent architecture, or sustainable architecture – there is only good architecture. There are always problems we cannot overlook; for example, energy, resources, costs, social aspects – we must always pay attention to all of them.— Souto de Moura in a lecture at the Holcim Forum 2004.
In addition to his many years of experience in architectural practice, Souto de Moura has a prolific academic career. He holds the position of Full Professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of Porto (FAUP) and has been a visiting professor at architectural schools in Genebra, Paris-Belleville, Harvard, Dublin, ETH Zurich, and Lausanne.
This year, he inaugurated the Memorial in Tribute to the Victims of the 2017 Forest Fires in Pedrógão Grande, a tragedy that claimed the lives of 66 people and left 253 others injured. His work was recently celebrated in the exhibition "Souto de Moura – Memória, Projectos, Obras," organized by CAU/BR, which brought a selection of the exhibition held in 2019 at the Casa da Arquitectura in Matosinhos, Portugal, to the Paço Imperial in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
