He became the second Portuguese (after Alvaro Siza in 1988) to receive this prestigious architectural award; it is awarded every few years by the Alvar Aalto Committee, which unites the architecture and cultural institutions of Finland. The first winner of the medal was in 1967 Aalto himself, over the past years, the number of laureates included Jorn Utson, James Sterling, Tadao Ando, Stephen Hall.
Despite some similarities in the composition of the architects she noted with the lists of the Pritzker Prize, RIBA and AIA gold medals, the Finnish award is focused on slightly different values: it is not a bright originality of works or significant theoretical achievements, but rather a creative approach to the profession, attention to detail, material context is what distinguished Aalto's projects.
For example, in the case of Paulo David, the jury led by Australian Glen Mercat (1992 laureate) noted his dissimilarity with typical “globalized” architects, whose works pursue one goal - to surprise with their uniqueness. David was born in Madeira and returned there with an architectural education and work experience in Lisbon. The island is part of the archipelago of the same name, which belongs to Portugal; they are located off the coast of Africa in the Atlantic Ocean.
The sharp uniqueness of the volcanic landscape with a predominance of basalt rocks, as well as the domination around the water space, which cannot be forgotten for a minute, force (or help) to create a contextual architecture suitable only for this place. On the other hand, the need to fit buildings into a complex landscape, arrange landscaping on bare rocks, etc., creates restrictions on the architect's creativity, giving additional incentive to his work. In addition, we must not forget about the stable local tradition, whose influence in the conditions of insular “isolation” could not but affect.
For ten years of work in Madeira, Paulo David erected there buildings of various types: villas and apartment buildings, art galleries, museums, swimming pools … The uniqueness of each of these projects, their correspondence to a specific situation and era makes them, at the same time, universal and timeless works with the timeless qualities of architecture.
N. F.
