Richard Coutts at the Alvaro Siza sketchbook archive in Madrid.

Whilst on a short break to Madrid to catch up with university friends, Richard visited the School of Architecture to check out the Álvaro Siza archive that was on show. The exhibition occupies the ground and lower ground floors of the school, acting also as a shop window to the hipster area of Chueca. It’s a spectacular location for students and captures the footfall of passing tourists and local artisans.

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The exhibition focuses on an essential part of Alvaro Siza’s archive, the exploration of his many sketchbooks, providing the opportunity to view them in alternating perspectives. Despite many projects never seeing the light of day or being altered over time, their original forms are recovered within this space.

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Spanning ninety works, the patterns that are repeated, transformed, and interact with each other over the years are identified: light, water, spaces of convergence and anticipation, and curvature, revealing the way Siza sustains his way of thinking and practising architecture.

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He witnessed several students, and local architects, replicating Siza's sketches. In an era where AI can generate multiple images in seconds, Richard recounted it felt incredibly refreshing to see slow architecture and what he likes to call HI (Human Intelligence) in practice: people taking their time to convey complex ideas and features through the medium of sketching.

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Richard could’ve spent hours in the exhibition, but his friends and family reminded him that dinner was waiting.

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