Alvaro Siza: Figures and Configurations: Buildings and Projects 1986–1988 (Rizzoli & Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 1988) is a small but rich and thought-provoking book about Alvaro Siza’s architectural thinking. The book presents his projects and some aphoristic texts. Besides Siza’s own words, the book has essays by Alexandre Alves Costa, Peter Testa and Wilfried Wang. The foreword is by José Rafael Moneo. The book was published in connection with an exhibition of work by Alvaro Siza, Kenzo Tange Visiting Professor of Architecture, Spring 1988.
In the work of Alvaro Siza, the qualities of self-disqualification and renunciation occasionally join those of melancholy and resignation (…) Siza’s architecture does not ‘travel well’. Like most elements of a still somewhat coherent culture, the buildings and interiors belogn to a context that is mutually reinforcing, a context that slowly becomes intelligble as it unfolds, as one comes into contact with it.
– Wilfried Wang in Alvaro Siza: Figures and Configurations: Buildings and Projects 1986–1988, p. 18
The text is in English. The book is illustrated with black-and-white photos, architectural drawings and sketches.
Our copy in stock is in good condition. The pages are clean without any markings, the glueing of the binding is fine. The covers show only some minuscule shelf wear. There is an old price sticker on the back cover.
