Soraya M. Genin (SMG) Thank you very much for having me, my colleague Pedro Pinto and our students. I have been promising them this interview since the beginning of the school year, and now, after a lot of research, it’s time to hear from you and clarify our doubts. This year, we gave students the challenge of rehabilitating the Malagueira Neighbourhood as part of the Final Architecture Project course and this book [SizaAtlas. Rehabilitating Malagueira (1977-2023)] is based on the work we carried out. It all started in 2017, when ICOMOS – Portugal proposed for a number of your works to be included in the World Heritage Tentative List and the prospect of Malagueira being included in the final application came up. Álvaro Siza (AS) Malagueira cannot be included, what can be included is the ruins of Malagueira. Who would accept ruins? It’s doubly ruined, physically and as a project, because the social infrastructures were never completed. Housing without social infrastructures... there are just a few small shops opened by the people of the [housing] cooperative. The Évora City Council asked for projects and I delivered a project for a parish centre, which is a fundamental social component, a project for a nursery school, but they never provided the funding to build these infrastructures. Professor Abílio [Fernandes] did very well while he was mayor, but there was no funding for infrastructure. Some funding was provided for the houses, of which twelve hundred were completed, if I’m not mistaken. If memory serves me well, when I complained about the lack of funding the cooperatives’ heads said, ‘Don’t worry, architect, the elections are coming up and they’ll have money then’. But there was only money for housing, and it came in piecemeal; there was never a penny for social infrastructures. After Abílio’s term ended [2001], everything has been falling into disrepair, not even the gardens survived, there is no maintenance. So, if you apply for developing Malagueira, the response will surely be less than favourable. SMG It’s not so much in ruins than marked by urban voids. We surveyed the unbuilt infrastructures and the changes to the design of the buildings, courtyards, facades, spans and walls. Were the varying wall heights part of the project? We identified three: one higher and two lower. AS That was during the debate with the cooperatives, it was part of the plan, or rather it eventually became part of the plan. The original [courtyard] walls were high. Some wanted a high wall, but many didn’t, we talked and I accepted the low wall option, which was 1.30 metres, I don’t remember exactly.

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Álvaro Siza,interview,Malagueira,Rehabilitation,World Heritage