In 1985, one year after the completion of the “Bonjour Tristesse” (Kreuzberg|IBA) and the classification of the Alhambra as a World Heritage Site, the Aedes Gallery showcased an exhibition entitled “Drawn Utopias”, featuring some of Álvaro Siza’s unrealized projects.
Almost thirty years later, Aedes joins Siza again for the project of a lifetime which, as serendipity would have it, is none other than the Alhambra’s New Gateway. An exhibition by Aedes Architecture Forum Berlin with the Council of the Alhambra & Generalife, Granada showcasing the project New Gate of the Alhambra, designed by the Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira and Juan Domingo Santos.
The exhibition, from 22 March to 8 May, edited by Arch. Antonio Choupina of A As Architecture, will be preceded by a Lecture, March 21 4:30 PM, of Arch. Álvaro Siza Vieira and Arch. Juan Domingo Santos with the participation of Dr. h.c. Kristin Feireiss, Aedes Berlin, H.E. D. Pablo Garcìa-Berdoy Cerezo, Ambassador of Spain H.E. Luís de Almeida Sampaio, Ambassador of Portugal María del Mar Villafranca, General Director of the Council of the Alhambra and Generalife, Granada, Spain.
After a stint in Berlin, the exhibition will be presented at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein from June 13 to August 31 and will settle then, in Spring 2015, in the Monumental Complex of the Alhambra and Generalife. The Alhambra is the most complete Moorish palace in the world, a breathtaking intersection of east and west that has inspired countless artists like Matisse, Escher and Owen Jones, who in turn became highlyinfluential to Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright.
One could say that the Alhambra first captivated Álvaro Siza’s imagination around the 1940’s, during family trips between Granada and Barcelona that shaped his formative years into seminal introductions to complex geometry, proportioned according to a sculptural crossbreeding of Pythagorean ratios.
Consequently, he also learned that openness can be achieved through discipline and that apparent limitation can work as a tool to conquer true freedom, both functionally and linguistically.
His visits to Granada increased over time and the Alhambra’s teachings were translated into enduring architectural themes that were embedded in every project, such as: the fusion of natural and artificial landscape, the organizing spatial quality of courtyards, the articulation of volumes and the contradiction of their weight, the symbolic and atmospheric properties of water, the material potency of refined detailing and the abstract importance of playful layers of light and shadow.
Location: Christinenstr. 18-19, 10119 Berlin, Germany Exhibition: Visions of the Alhambra | Álvaro Siza Opening Date: March 21st | 18:00h Curator: António Choupina Photography: Álvaro Siza Vieira + Juan Domingo Santos, Antoìnio Choupina © Aedes Architecture Forum Berlin and Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife