Casa d’Abreu Neto is the first built work of Álvaro Siza Vieira, Pritzker Prize laureate.
Designed in 1954, when he was 21 and still an architecture student, it was built between 1954 and 1956 and inaugurated on 28 May 1957 in Matosinhos, his hometown. It is part of the Quatro Casas ensemble: four dwellings built for different members of the same extended family.
The Casa was born of the dream of Fernanda d’Abreu and Fernando Neto, who married in 1947. It was she who imagined it; he joined in the dream. The plot, on Avenida Dom Afonso Henriques, belonged to a cousin of Fernanda’s. Its division gave rise to the Quatro Casas: one for the d’Abreu Netos, one for Fernanda’s brother, and two semi-detached houses for Fernando’s godmother, who was also Fernanda’s step-grandmother.
The project was entrusted to a young man from Matosinhos who was still studying architecture. His name was Álvaro Siza. Through conversations, debates and many doubts, a close bond grew between them, earning him a name only this family gives him: “O Nosso Arquitecto” (“Our Architect”).
When they were inaugurated in 1957, the houses were nicknamed hay barns, cricket cages and shacks.
But Siza’s architecture already announced a language of its own, drawing on Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Antoni Gaudí, and Portuguese and Japanese architecture.
The Project: the story of Casa d’Abreu Neto, Álvaro Siza Vieira’s first work
At Casa d’Abreu Neto, this language shows in the canopy over the laundry tank, the wooden staircase, the ergonomic handrail, the sculptural chimney, the ten-metre balcony, the ochre glass mosaic and the many details designed by the architect, from ironmongery to lamps.
For more than six decades, the Casa was home to several generations of the family.
Christmases, baptisms and birthdays were celebrated here, and from the balcony the family watched the Festas do Senhor de Matosinhos. In 2011, at Fernando Neto’s request, Siza signed the original plan, 55 years after drawing it: “I couldn’t sign it back then, because I wasn’t yet an architect.”
In 2016, the Casa began opening its doors to the public as part of Open House Porto. In 2019, at Fernando Neto’s invitation, Siza returned to his first work after more than six decades away. That reunion gave rise to the documentary “O Primeiro Siza” (“The First Siza”), directed by Sara Nunes.
In 2021, Maria Manuel Neto, granddaughter of the first owners, decided to preserve this legacy and share it. Between 2022 and 2024, Álvaro Siza returned to the Casa to restore it, design its furniture and create its logo.
With the work complete, the Casa begins a new chapter, keeping its residential vocation while opening up to stays, events and experiences. Today it is classified as a Monument of Municipal Interest, and an application for Monument of Public Interest status is under way.
