Eduardo Souto de Moura is a renowned Portuguese architect and the 2011 Pritzker Prize laureate, whose architectural style blends abstract aesthetics with functionalism. He excels at using light, shadow, proportion, and materiality to imbue spaces with depth and layers, creating a dialogue between architecture and landscape. Luísa Souto de Moura, the daughter of Eduardo Souto de Moura, was profoundly influenced by her father. She chose to pursue careers as both an architect and researcher, developing her own unique perspective and practice within the field of architecture. Having collaborated with her father on numerous projects, Luísa demonstrates an exquisite command of architecture, particularly in the presentation of details and the application of materials.
In May of this year, as part of our Poetic Architecture and Luxury Residences Tour in Portugal, we had the great honor of inviting Luísa to lead a masterclass. Titled “Constants and Variables,” the session systematically deciphered how Souto de Moura developed an architectural language that is both rooted in its locality and transcendent of its time, based on an evolving way of thinking and supported by a wealth of unpublished drawings and project cases.
Luísa emphasized that his architecture is not a self-repetition of forms, but a practice seeking balance between “rationality and poetry.” By comparing Souto de Moura with her mentor, Álvaro Siza, she highlighted his distinctive trait of “integrating context through strong concepts”—architecture is not about self-expression through form, but about solving problems, preserving memory, and grounding practice in place.
This masterclass was not merely a review of works, but a guided journey into the architect’s mindset—helping us understand how to construct architecture that truly belongs to a place, navigating between change and permanence.
