Notes to editors

1. For further information or images contact Mina Vadon in the RIBA Press Office mina.vadon@inst.riba.org or 020 7307 3761.
2. Álvaro Siza will be presented with the Royal Gold Medal at Buckingham Palace on Thursday morning 26 February 2009, followed by a celebratory dinner that evening. An image of Álvaro Siza receiving the Royal Gold Medal from Her Majesty The Queen will be available from the press office.
3. The RIBA Royal Gold Medal, International and Honorary Fellows are managed by the RIBA Trust.  The RIBA Trust manages the cultural assets of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), including the internationally recognised collections of the British Architectural Library.  It is the UK's national architecture centre, delivering the RIBA Awards and RIBA Stirling Prize (live on Channel 4); a full programme of lectures, exhibitions, tours and other events and an education programme.
4. The Royal Gold Medal for the promotion of architecture was inaugurated by Queen Victoria in 1848 and is conferred by the Sovereign annually on a distinguished architect or person "whose work has promoted, either directly or indirectly, the advancement of architecture."  Previous winners include: Le Corbusier (1953), Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (1925), Frank Gehry (2000), Frei Otto (2005), Toyo Otto (2006), Herzog & de Meuron (2007) and Edward (Ted) Cullinan (2008).
5. 2009 marks the 175^th Anniversary of the RIBA. To celebrate this milestone the Institute has planned a programme of special events which look back with pride on some of the most significant achievements of the past while also looking forward to the years ahead.  We aim to use our position as the home of architecture in the UK to engage an even wider audience in the vitally important architectural issues which have such a large influence on the way we live and work both now and in the future.  Our programme for the year includes major loans to the Palladio 500 exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts and our collaboration with the Barbican centre to bring the highly-acclaimed exhibition; Le Corbusier: The Art of Architecture to London.  We are also running a national schools competition in collaboration with Construction Skills to design a new parliament building which coincides with the 175th anniversary of the current Barry/Pugin Palace of Westminster.  Our major annual events such as the RIBA Stirling Prize, the Royal Gold Medal and Annual Lecture will also be given special prominence during the year. In raising our profile for our anniversary year we hope to demonstrate better the breadth of our activities and convey our passion for good design and designers, in the built environment. For further information go to www.architecture.com/175
6. The full citation follows:

Álvaro Siza is simply a profoundly complete architect who defies categorisation. The forging of a masterful and seemingly inevitable architecture out of the possibilities of a site is one of the supreme characteristics of Álvaro Siza's architecture. He manipulates his readings of place into sculptural forms that are never predictable or ordinary, yet are never allowed to dominate over use or typological intelligibility.

In Siza's buildings, perhaps like no others, it is the relationships between the elements of the architecture that is given primacy rather than the shape or texture of the elements themselves. This is an architecture in which an economy of expressive means is combined with an abundance of spatial revelation.

Álvaro Siza's architecture matured in Portugal under dictatorship allowing little interchange with international architectural culture. After qualifying in 1955 he worked for 3 years with Fernando Tavora with whom he is seen as the leading light of the 'Porto school'. His approach was already evident in his first independent project, the charming Boa Nova tea-house and restaurant (1963), albeit overlaid with a measure of decorative detail, which displays his deep interest in construction more obviously than in later projects.

After 1977 and the end of dictatorship, Siza was asked to design large numbers of low cost houses for the local government of Evora and later the national housing association. Not only do these houses make adaptive and liveable dwellings, but collectively they bring a gentle order to the city periphery, establishing Siza's command of the larger urban scale. At the same time, Portugal opened up to the outside world and soon Siza was invited to enter competitions and take commissions abroad. To buildings in Germany, Spain, Italy, France, the Netherlands and South Korea, Siza has applied his unique architectural insights, and in London in 2006 we saw the Serpentine Pavilion, a collaboration with Eduardo Souta de Moura. At the same time he has continued to build inspiring buildings in Portugal, such as the College of Education, Setubal (1993), the University of Oporto Faculty of Architecture (1993) and the Adeaga Mayor Winery (2006).

Álvaro Siza is, and always has been, a committed teacher and educator. He has enabled many younger architects to gain commissions through the work he was initially offered and this selflessness is one of many examples of his commitment to the greater architectural project, rather than to personal success. Unusually for an architect of such international standing, Siza has deliberately kept his studio small to ensure his attention to every project. He is generous with his appreciation of other architects.

For the inspiring and instructive body of work he has produced over 40 years, and for his immense contribution to architecture through dialogue and teaching, the RIBA, on behalf of H. M. the Queen, is honoured to present the 2009 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture to Álvaro Joaquim Melo Siza Vieira. We wish him many more years of fulfilment of his unique vision of the possibilities of building.