When the international contest for a building that would house the works of Brazilian painter Iberê Camargo, who died in 1994, was launched, it was equally supported by the artist's family and the local administration, who donated the site near the Padre Cacique road, in Porto Alegre, a city with over one million inhabitants, in southernmost part of Brazil. The site was a difficult one, shaped as a small and tight triangle, surrounded by rocks of around 25 metres in height, offering a great view on the river Guaiba.

In his museum project, Siza incuded exhibition spaces, storage spaces, a library and a video-library, a cafe, a small auditorium, as well as administrative spaces and workshops for artists. Consequently, the building developed vertically, the main volume being dug in the rocky background. The building's shape moulds upon the nearby slopes and, through a coherent distribution of space, solves the problem of parking, extremely important in such a tight place, situated near crowded arteries.

Architectural programs for building holiday apartments used to be rare in Romania, and tourists resided in either large hotels and small villas. With the emergence of this new way of spending one's holiday rises an architecture characterized by a significant degree of freedom, who, for the first time, has the possibility of breaking the barriers imposed by the Romanian urban community: visual, phonic and thermal isolation, economic efficiency and a lack of respect for nature.

The apartments in Neptun, projected by SYAA serve to elegantly contradict the principles of real estate investors, of functionalist architecture teachings and of structuralist efficiency, creating, through simple ways, an open space, a natural flow between interior and exterior, created exclusively for the guests' comfort.

Born in 1933 in Matosinhos, a small town near Poto (Portugal), Álvaro Joaquim de Meio Siza Vieira graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Porto and spent his apprenticeship in Fernando Tavora's office. He often says he would have liked to become a sculptor, but his father didn't allow him to. Today, after more than 50 years of activity, his buildings are immediately recognizable in any place around the world, although Siza's style is hard to be described in words. The best way of becoming familiar with his works is individual interaction. "Learning to see, not just to look, in detail and in depth, at a global level is fundamental not only for an architect, but for everyone else", as Siza once declared in an interview. His architecture follows the same principle, it makes us see and it reveals the true nature of a place.

Winner of the 1992 Pritzker Prize and of numerous other awards, Álvaro Siza has obstinately refused to become a part of the star-system of contemporary architecture, dedicating himself to his projects and to teaching, an activity which he never gave up. Minimalist, but avoiding to become abstract, inspiring strength and serenity, elegant in a mathematic way, but also sensitive, Siza's buildings, very diverse in size and function, are always well integrated in their context.

First held in 2003, as a strictly professional event, The Bucharest Architecture Annual gradually became an urban festival, managing to establish an interaction between the main institutions concerned with public space. This year, the organizers aimed to involve the public, thus causing people to realize the importance and necessity of quality architecture.

As usually, the event revolved around the exhibition presenting recent works of architects based in Bucharest. This year brought a new record in the number of participants. The jury was presided by the Dutch architect Pero Puljiz, whose office Architekten Cie. has recently won the public contest for the extension of Victoria Palace, the Romanian government building. The jury's selection of quality projects proved that young architects have great potential.