The exhibition is divided into two parts, one "very material, about Siza Vieira's architecture", in the main gallery of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation headquarters, and another dedicated to his "plastic work", in the temporary exhibition gallery of the Gulbenkian Museum, explained the architect, critic and curator of the exhibition, Carlos Quintáns Eiras, during a guided tour for the press.

A great admirer of the Portuguese architect's work, the Galician curator highlighted that the name of Álvaro Siza "is known on a planetary scale" and has "a dimension and magnitude that is sometimes forgotten and ignored in Portugal".

Therefore, he felt compelled to make this "great exhibition", the first in the last 30 years in Lisbon, although conditioned by the need and concern to "do something that has not yet been done".

The first great difficulty was related to Álvaro Siza Vieira's "extraordinarily important work capacity".

"In the History [of architecture] there is no similar production", he said, indicating that he took advantage of the collaboration with several institutions to obtain "a total image of Siza".

Thus, the exhibition is the result of the cross-referencing of archival material from the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal, Canada, the Serralves Foundation and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Art Library, the British centre Drawing Matters and the architect's own studio.

The curator, who began work a year ago in partnership with architect Zaida García-Requejo, assistant curator, revealed that he was confronted with more than half a million documents.

"Obviously, we couldn't work with all of them. We estimate that we worked with about 250,000 documents", he said.

The first part of the exhibition -- entitled "Architecture" - is a "Siza atlas", an exhibition that aims to be comprehensive, with an analysis of his work through 30 verbs (concepts), for each of which are presented (in plans reproduced on a long table) three architectural works, for a total of 90.

These numbers are significant, as there is a numerical harmony in the way the exhibition is set up: all pieces and exhibitors are grouped in multiples of three.

In a small dark room, 900 photographic images are projected, taken by Spanish photographer Juan Rodriguez, who began working with Siza Vieira in the last 40 years.

This "film" has a total duration of 15 minutes (900 seconds) and projects, every three seconds, three images simultaneously (one on the wall in front of the viewer) and two on the side walls.

In this first gallery are also exhibited the "black cover notebooks" (in facsimile) with drawings and sketches by the architect, notebooks that -- in the curator's words -- "contain Siza's inertia".

"Through his notebooks, [Siza Vieira] shows a way of thinking", said Carlos Quintáns Eiras, adding that "drawing, for Siza, is to conquer the future in some way".

To this extent, explains the curator, it is important for the architect to think about the construction of buildings, drawing "absolutely everything", which is why there is a nucleus of the exhibition dedicated solely to furniture designed by Álvaro Siza: chairs, benches, armchairs, furniture, tables and lamps.

It is at this point that Carlos Quintáns Eiras shows that the legs of a table rotate, so that they are out of alignment with the table top, a "joke" by the architect, which leads people to think that they are crooked and to straighten them.

This is one of the many signs of Siza's sense of humour found in his work and which belie the serious air he normally presents, he commented, adding that other examples of this "fine humour" (in the sense of British humour) are evident everywhere, such as in the (school) notebooks that have the word "discipline" inscribed on the front.

In these notebooks, Siza Vieira writes, next to the word "discipline", instead of putting the name of the subject taught, "none", "little", "without" or the prefix 'in', he said.

In this room, there is also a selection of books and publications dedicated to the architect and his work.

The second part of the exhibition -- entitled "Architect" -- reveals the most personal and intimate universe of Siza Vieira, starting with a set of watercolours made by the architect and a self-portrait, the largest that exists: four by four centimetres.

What is observed in this room is that Siza is always drawing and his greatest references in the plastic arts are fully revealed, which are Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, Matisse and, mainly, Picasso, from whom the architect absorbs some style.

"For Siza, Picasso is very important. In architecture, he did the same as in art, which should be understood through cubism. We can have a Siza that has to do with various currents, such as impressionism or expressionism, but more important is the absolute connection with cubism".

An entire wall of this room is occupied with enlargements of sheets from the notebooks in which he draws, with self-portraits mainly of hands, but also some of feet.

Another nucleus is dedicated to the drawings that Siza made of family and friends, and to an exhibitor that holds "extensible notebooks", in which stories of mythology are told in drawings.

The curators wanted to convey to the exhibition this idea that Siza Vieira always draws and everywhere, presenting, therefore, examples of drawings made on torn pieces of paper, on tablecloths, on sheets of paper with coffee stains.

"There is a drawn sheet, which is burned because of tobacco and with coffee stains. It is not in this exhibition, but it is the most perfect expression of Siza's work", he said.

As the architect constantly draws, he also draws while watching television, mainly jazz or classical music programmes (his musical genres of choice), or ballet, an artistic expression that for Siza Vieira is "as important as architecture", assured the curator.

Therefore, there is a whole nucleus of drawings of ballerinas, which occupies a central part of the room, exhibited in small individual frames on tripods, in a set of 60 drawings.

Siza also drew an orchestra and each of its elements is on a small piece of paper glued to a pack of cigarettes, arranged inside a glass display case, for a total of 39. The idea of this composition is to show that "Siza draws as fast as he smokes".

Another prominent theme is that of travel, presented in a selection of 60 drawings that Álvaro Siza made in a travel context, not only in the theme portrayed, but also in the support used, such as, for example, airplane bags, papers with the airline logo or exhibition programmes.

In this room are also exhibited works by his wife, the artist Maria Antónia Siza (1940-1973), and some sculptures.

The curator regretted that "the smell" associated with Siza -- coffee, tobacco, wood -- is missing in this exhibition, but believes that the exhibited pieces induce this aroma.

For the curator, Álvaro Siza Vieira -- who will not be at the opening, but assured that he will see the exhibition -- is an "architect capable of transforming the country, an architect capable of imagining a better future, an architect who is seen from outside as one of the best in the world".

The exhibition will be accompanied by a public programme, which includes guided tours, drawing workshops, a round table, with two sessions, to "Think Siza Vieira", and a cycle composed of three films, chosen by Siza himself: "The Architect and the old city", by Catarina Alves Costa, "Neighbours", by Cândida Pinto, and "The Lady of Chandor", by Catarina Mourão.

Born in 1933, in Matosinhos, Porto district, Álvaro Siza Vieira was the first Portuguese to win the Pritzker Prize, the world's highest architecture award, and the only non-Spanish architect to be awarded the Spanish architecture prize, stressed the curator.

Leia Também: Importância do desenho na obra de Álvaro Siza em exposição na Gulbenkian (Portuguese version)