Álvaro Siza Designs Biomorphic Pavilion in Shanghai

Written by António Choupina | Translated by Maria Erman
Published on September 04, 2019

There are three words that have long-awaited to be put together: The Siza Pavilion. Their story begins with top furniture brand CAMERICH and the Aedes Architecture Forum’s search for a visionary in architecture and product design. The 1992 Pritzker Prize Laureate, Álvaro Siza, was later selected and commissioned a pavilion for China’s International Furniture Fair (CIFF 2019).

On February 21st, Siza made the first sketch as he visited the Hufeisensiedlung. No one could’ve envisioned a more serendipitous beginning, as Bruno Taut’s curves and corners slowly made their way into the unsure shadows of early creation. A second sketch came into existence after wandering through the anthropomorphic lines of Picasso. The pavilion’s concentrated body broke into several limbs, with a foyer reminiscent of Dora Maar’s nose, in The Yellow Sweater, and courtyards’ akin to the negative spaces in Blue Nude Skipping Rope.

Matisse’s collage had a lasting effect on Siza, as he started to play with aluminum foil cut-outs. It brought back the latent memory of his Iberê Camargo Museum, in Brazil, and of shimmering insulation covered up during construction. Álvaro Siza said that he would one day make it visible and he finally has. The Siza Pavilion’s outer skin is entirely made out of mineral-wool with aluminum foil facing, which is not just useful soundproofing in heavy-traffic areas, but also unusually beautiful in its soft glow and ever-changing illusion of colors, movements, silhouettes...

Álvaro Siza Designs Biomorphic Pavilion in Shanghai - Image 7 of 15 — Aluminum model of CamerichPavilion. 2019 © Álvaro Siza

The exterior metaphysical reflection of its surroundings contrasts with the interior abstraction of its cloud white planes. Large triangles and trapezoids seem to hover 4m above the floor, diaphragms that reconnect different angles, sequencing a widening promenade. From initial compression to core expansion, the pavilion’s backbone exhibits some of the furniture that Álvaro Siza manufactured in his 86 years.

The Carlos Ramos Pavilion was Siza’s first and most meaningful pavilion. Today, many of its concepts are distilled in Shanghai: a monolith fragmented by geometry, where the oblique convergence of the courtyard intentionally forces perspective, narrowing to achieve intimacy or breaching to dilute boundaries. The complex in and out folding of the walls relinquishes any thought of vertical extrusions and focuses longitudinally on the corners, in continuous dialogue with the pre-existing concrete pillars and the solid wood benches that mediate the courtyards’ embrace.

Seven doorways punctuate these courtyards, allowing for overall permeability while crafting specific entry points beyond the head of this 715m² pavilion. I say “head” due to its biomorphic character. A mere glance at the floorplan and one will find it resembles some kind of animal: an anteater, an elephant, or maybe the cat that inhabits Siza’s office, stretching its paws and tail in the sun – as if architecture leaned toward anti-entropic evolution.