The 500-metre-long Álvaro Siza Promenade is a walkway flanked by hornbeam hedges that passes along the west side of Siza’s earlier factory building and connects the VitraHaus with the Fire Station by Zaha Hadid. It is conceived as a path with various stations: its sequential ‘episodes’ allow wide-ranging views of architecture and nature. These include an S-shaped common area framed by hedges, the Vitra Slide Tower by Carsten Höller and an archaic-looking double chamber formed from interpenetrating brick and granite walls.

Álvaro Siza, born in Matosinhos, Portugal, in 1933, studied architecture at the University of Porto. From 1955-58, he collaborated with architect Fernando Tavora. From 1966-69, Álvaro Siza taught at the School of Architecture (ESBAP), as of 1976 he held a professorship in the “Construction” Department. From 1984-92 he was a teacher at the Architecture Faculty in Porto, in 1985 he won a prize in Venice for his design “Campo de Marte“ and as of 1988 he was in charge of reconstructing the old town “Chiado” in Lisbon. In 1992, Álvaro Siza won the Hyatt Foundation’s Pritzker Architecture Prize for his life’s work. He teaches in South America, Japan, Canada, the USA and Europe.

Further Projects for Vitra:
1994 Factory building on the Vitra Campus, Weil am Rhein