If you’ve been in the city of Oporto, has surely passed by one of his works. He was the one who designed the Trindade subway station, the House of Cinema Manoel de Oliveira, the Portuguese Center of Photography, among others. And if you do not know who we’re talking about, the next time you pass by these places remeber that the name on the signature of the architectural projects is Eduardo Souto de Moura.

Amazing house in Ponte de Lima, north of Portugal, by Eduardo Souto de Moura

The architect who was born in Oporto in 1952 is today one of the most renowned professionals in the country and in 2011 won the Pritzker Prize, a sort of Nobel Prize of architecture.

He is the second Portuguese architect to receive this distinction. Before him, another big name in the area have won in 1992, Álvaro Siza, of whom we have spoken in the last week. With the prize, the architect succeeds names like Oscar Niemeyer (1988), Frank Gehry (1989), Norman Foster (1999) and Zaha Hadid (2004).

“When I got the call saying I would be the Pritzker laureate, I don’t wanted to believe. Later I received the confirmation that it was true, and then I realized how great honor it was. Being the second Portuguese architect chosen for the prize makes it even more important”, said Souto Moura, on the premium.

Between his best known works we can stand out, the Braga Municipal Stadium (2000/03), the , Casa das Artes in Porto (1981/91), the Contemporary Art Center of Bragança (2004/2008), Hotel do Bom Sucesso in Óbidos, the House of Stories in Cascais, Mercado da Cidade in Braga (1980/84), the Marginal in Southest Matosinhos (1995), the crematorium Kortrijk (Belgium), the Trindade subway station in Porto, Manoel de Oliveira Cinema House in Porto, the Portugal Pavilion at the 11th Venice Biennale (Italy – 1985) and the House Llabia (Spain).

Braga Municipal Stadium

House of Stories in Cascais

Trindade subway station in Porto

Manoel de Oliveira Cinema House in Porto

Eduardo graduated in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Oporto and was awarded by the Faculty of Architecture and Arts at the University Lusíada of Oporto with the honorary doctorate. On beginning of his career has partnered with Álvaro Siza, but absorbed influences of the Mies van der Rohe’s lines and shapes and subsequently started to develop his work individually.

His international recognition would strengthen when he won the first place in a contest where he drew the draft of a hotel in the historic district of Salzburg, Austria, in 1987. Starting with a house in Cascais, projected in 2002, he began to move away from the mieszian language that initially defined his work. After this he started to redesign the way to build and create architecture, applying shapes with complexity and dynamism, but always taking care with usual-spatial design.