Eduardo Elisio Machado Souto de Moura (born 25 July 1952), better known as Eduardo Souto de Moura, is a Portuguese architect. Son of medical doctor Jose Alberto Souto de Moura and wife Maria Teresa Ramos Machado, he is the brother of Jose Souto de Moura, former 9th Attorney-General of Portugal. Along with Fernando Tavora and Alvaro Siza, he is one of the references of the Porto School of Architecture, where he was appointed Professor. Souto de Moura was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2011.

Life and career

Souto de Moura was born in Porto, and studied sculpture before switching to architecture at the School of Fine Arts of the University of Porto, the current FAUP - Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto, and receiving his degree in 1980. From 1974 to 1979 he worked with Alvaro Siza Vieira at his architectural practice, who encouraged him to start his own firm. He began his career as an independent architect in 1980, after winning a design competition for the Casa das Artes, a culture center with an auditorium and an exhibition gallery in the gardens of a neo-classical mansion, in his native city of Porto. However, Souto de Moura collaborated with Siza on the Portuguese pavilion at the Expo 2000 in Hanover, Germany, and Serpentine Gallery's annual summer pavilion in 2004.

Souto de Moura's early commissions were often modest residential houses, mainly in his native country. Later, he was commissioned with shopping centers, schools, art galleries, and a cinema, in countries including Spain, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. Between 1989 and 1997, Souto de Moura spent eight years on the restoration Santa Maria do Bouro, a half-destroyed 12th-century monastery in Amares, transforming it into a Pousada.

From 1981 to 1990, Souto de Moura was assistant professor at his alma mater, and was later appointed Professor at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Porto. He has been visiting professor at the architectural schools of Geneva, Paris-Belleville, Harvard University, Dublin, ETH Zurich and Lausanne, and has participated in numerous seminars and given many lectures both in Portugal and abroad. His work has appeared in various publications and exhibitions.

Recognition

On 28 March 2011, it was announced that Moura is the 2011 Pritzker Prize winner, architecture's highest honor. He is the second Portuguese architect to win the honor, after Alvaro Siza. The prize was supposed to be presented in April in Washington DC but the winner was prematurely leaked by a Spanish news organisation. The prize was awarded for his work including Estadio Municipal de Braga, the Burgo Tower in Porto and the Paula Rego Museum in Cascais.