Casa d’Abreu Neto: Siza’s First Work
By Inês Baptista da Câmara
| Doors and doorhandles designed by Álvaro Siza Vieira. Photo Francisco F. Cruz (2024). |
May 28, 1957. Casa d'Abreu Neto from the iconic Quatro Casas by Álvaro Siza Vieira becomes life, becomes history.
Álvaro Siza Vieira (born in 1933) calls Maria Fernanda and Fernando Abreu Neto his first victims. Their daughter, Maria João, decided to create a testimony of the stories of the Neto family intertwined with the experience with the then young Siza Vieira, before, during and after construction (1954-57), in a book, reporting the clients' anxieties and concerns, the displeasure of the population and the press, the scathing criticisms of the time and the emergence of an architectural genius.
Today, the granddaughter, Maria Manuel, is the one who is carrying on the history of the family home and opening the door and letting all architecture lovers and curious people of Siza work to experience an unforgettable stay at an iconic space which meticulous details.
The preservation of the memory of a family's history is intertwined with the evolution of the city and the community of Matosinhos in the 20th century, as well as the career, life and work of the 1992 Pritzker prize winner, Álvaro Siza Vieira. It was only in 2019 that Siza returned to the house he designed, still as a student, and signed the architectural project.
Casa d’Abreu Neto represents how architecture transforms a region, bringing notoriety to a territory, strengthening the roots of its community and becoming attractive due to its uniqueness.
The filling of the house is made up of conversations, whispers, debates, dances, flirtations, births that everyone wants to know and hear because this work is alive, it is human. The house consists of four bedrooms, one small office, two small libraries, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a huge balcony, and a small garden. Maria is already excited to share all the small stories with the guests.
It was throughout the conversations, debates and discussions between fears and scepticism between mother, father, daughter, son and architect during the execution of the project that Siza earned the nickname “Our Architect”. Only this family calls him in that way. They were the first, they have that right as the first is unrepeatable.
This is the first house of the origin of the thought style that the world admires and recognizes.
| Revolutionary aesthetic kitchen with orange ceramic mosaic tablet. Photo Francisco F. Cruz (2024). |
| The fluidity of light and spaces (living room and exterior). Photo Francisco F. Cruz (2024). |
| Furniture designed by Álvaro Siza Vieira. Photo Francisco F. Cruz (2024). |
| Organic shape handrail designed by Álvaro Siza Vieira. |
| Bedroom and a view of the upper floor landing. Photo Francisco F. Cruz (2024). |
| House logo by Álvaro Siza Vieira and luxury is art in bed linen. Photo Francisco F. Cruz (2024). |
| House logo inspired by the Siza designed door handles. |
| Handmade wood staircase by Álvaro Siza Vieira and local carpenter. Photo Francisco F. Cruz (2024). |
Posted December 5, 2024