SIZA, The Architecture of Memory

Between the rigor and design that frame space and the memory that grounds us, the same pursuit remains: to see the world as if we were seeing it today for the very first time.

SIZA, a documentary conceived by Gallery, premieres at the MAAT, Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, in Lisbon on October 29, unveiling a rare archive of more than 500 images, most of them never before seen, spanning the nine decades of Álvaro Siza Vieira’s extraordinary life. From the boy who discovered the world through drawing to the master who redrew it.

Through photographs, sketches, and personal notes, the film opens a silent space for reflection, where each image becomes a trace of time, a fragment of a life entirely devoted to the act of seeing, discovering, and exploring. Here, time is not merely a theme but a living presence, accompanying Siza from his childhood in Matosinhos to the present day, where every line carries both memory and meaning.

In this film, memory becomes architecture, an invisible space built from the very act of remembering. Within this intimate experience emerges Otiima, a brand that constantly challenges the limits of what is possible in window design and technology, as a poetic counterpart to the idea of memory itself. Its transparent surfaces, dissolving the boundaries between inside and outside, reflect Siza’s own pursuit of light, an architecture of passage, clarity, and silence. The presence of Otiima in this journey goes beyond partnership; it becomes an encounter of preservation, a way of allowing light to continue flowing through time.

SIZA is, above all, a film about the gaze, about what we see and what remains after seeing. Through this vast and unprecedented archive, we witness the subtle continuity between the personal and the universal, between past and present. Architecture, as Siza reveals, was never merely about buildings but about the persistence of wonder.

Produced by the Gallery, the project reinforces its mission to preserve and disseminate the legacy of the great masters of contemporary architecture and design, creating new dialogues between memory, creativity, and heritage.

At MAAT, SIZA unfolds as a meditation on time, a journey into the invisible, where every image, every trace, and every line becomes part of a greater architecture: the architecture of memory.

SIZA Documentary Archive.