Portugal Pavilion, a view from the streets of Campo di Marte, Giudecca

Álvaro Siza’s project for the Campo di Marte area resulted from a restricted invitation tender, launched in the mid 80s by the Venice IACP (Autonomous Institute for Public Housing) - today ATER Venezia -, on a much degraded (and partially demolished) residential area on the Giudecca island. The Portuguese architect was the winner of this interesting exchange of ideas involving other competitors: Aldo Rossi, Carlo Aymonino, Rafael Moneo, Mario Botta, Boris Podrecca, Aldo van Eyck, James Gowan, Gianfranco Caniggia and Tomasz Mankowsky. The tender predicted not only different building stages, for the winning proposal, but also the possibility of including some of those other competitors in its future development.