Álvaro Siza Designs Biomorphic Pavilion in Shanghai

Save this picture!

There are three words that have long-awaited to be put together: The Siza Pavilion. Their story begins with top furniture brand CAMERICH and the Aedes Architecture Forum’s search for a visionary in architecture and product design. The 1992 Pritzker Prize Laureate, Álvaro Siza, was later selected and commissioned a pavilion for China’s International Furniture Fair (CIFF 2019).

On February 21st, Siza made the first sketch as he visited the Hufeisensiedlung. No one could’ve envisioned a more serendipitous beginning, as Bruno Taut’s curves and corners slowly made their way into the unsure shadows of early creation.  A second sketch came into existence after wandering through the anthropomorphic lines of Picasso. The pavilion’s concentrated body broke into several limbs, with a foyer reminiscent of Dora Maar’s nose, in The Yellow Sweater, and courtyards’ akin to the negative spaces in Blue Nude Skipping Rope.