Brought up in a large middle-class family presided by his grandmother, who returned from Brazil to Portugal with her children when she became a widow, young Álvaro was a precocious draughtsman, stimulated by an uncle of his who even encouraged him to sign his sketches. These artistic abilities led him to entertain the idea of becoming a sculptor, something that was received unfavorably by his family, especially his father, an engineer who feared for his son’s financial security in this sort of profession; therefore, Siza enrolled in architecture in the School of Fine Arts with the hope of dedicating himself in the future to what he felt was his real vocation. But architecture ended up captivating him and in the School he discovered and was discovered by a charismatic teacher, the cultivated and cosmopolitan Fernando Távora, ten years his senior, and Siza was to join his studio while still a student... [+]