SPACE March 2023 (No. 664)
‘Journey of an Architect – The Souto de Moura Special Exhibition’ / Image courtesy of Seoul Hall of Urbanism & Architecture
An exhibition featuring the masterpieces of Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura will be held at the Seoul Hall of Urbanism & Architecture from Jan. 17 to Mar. 26. The 2011 Pritzker Prize winner, alongside his long-time friend and colleague Álvaro Siza, have been the representative voices in Portuguese modernist architecture for the past four decades. With a profound understanding of traditional architecture and a contemporary sculptural language, his work possesses a timeless universality and aesthetic. His projects, ranging from small houses to offices, museums, schools, sports facilities, and large-scale projects such as metro stations, cover a wide range of functions and scales from 1980 to the present. The exhibition features twelve projects, including the iconic Municipal Stadium of Braga (2003), Burgo – Trade and Office Building (2007), Casa das Historias Paula Rego (2009), and the Municipal Market of Braga (2010). Upon entering the oval-shaped exhibition, models are symmetrically arranged behind tables displaying photographs, sketches, drawings, and plans for each project. As you stroll through the curved exhibition space, one bears witness to the sheer number of ideas from the early planning stages, to development and realisation as tangible buildings. The selection of projects also reflects the breadth of his work, as the exhibition features the House in Moledo (1998), designed to take advantage of the natural terrain with its steep hillside, and the Foz Tua Hydroelectric Dam (2018), which focuses on minimising the impact of buildings and their systems on nature. As the exhibition’s title suggests, it’s an opportunity to retrace an extraordinary architect’s journey. by Kim Jia