Feature: Exhibition displaying major works by Portuguese architect Soto de Moura opens in Lisbon

When Portuguese architect Eduardo Soto de Moura was asked to have his works displayed at an exhibition, his first instinct was to say no because he simply didn't have the time.

But Soto de Moura changed his mind. With a career that has progressed from private homes to larger public buildings, Soto de Moura felt it could be the right time to gain perspective on what he has completed up to now and what he has left to do.

That desire to gain perspective on his own work led him to agree to hold his first major exhibition, entitled "Continuity", opened on Tuesday at Lisbon's Centro Cultural de Belem (CCB), with jazz music by Miles Davis playing in the background.

"The selfish side of me wanted to show my works as a whole, what I've been doing. I wanted to show others but also it was for myself to see," he explains in a video interview, screened as visitors walk in to the exhibition.

The exhibition, which runs until Sept. 18, displays seven of Soto de Moura's most important works in Portugal, including Tua (undergoing), Braga stadium (2004), Metro of Porto (2001), Torre de Burgo (2007), Casa de Historias de Paula Rego (2008), and Casa na Arrabida (1994).

The exhibition was curated by architects Antonio Sergio Koch and Andre de Franca Campos, who wanted to reflect the architect's symbolisms and analogies.

One of the models on display is the Casa de Historias de Paula Rego, the museum of a renowned modern Portuguese artist Paula Rego in Cascais, which stands in a resort town near Lisbon.

Pyramid-shaped, and made of red-coloured concrete, he incorporates trees and other natural elements into the building.

Spectators can see the model of the building and also images of what it looks like today, through videos screened at the exhibition by Japanese filmmaker Takashi Sugimoto.

Souto de Moura says gravity takes a central role in his work. He also pays special detail to light, which makes his buildings rich in emotion.

"Every once in a while, there must be shadows," he says in the video interview.

Another of his prominent works, the Braga Stadium, was created on the mountainside, which allows those who can't afford a ticket to watch a match from afar.

While Soto de Mouro, who won the 2011 Pritzker Prize, has carried out dozens of projects abroad, he says those satisfy him the most are those he did locally, in his native country, even if his home country presents challenges for architects.

"It is difficult to do architecture in Portugal and it implies certain wear and tear," he says.

However he says he is happy to be able to stick to a coherent style and one that is very much his own.

"I don't have to cater to any one, I don't follow the rules or agree with them," he says.

Soto de Moura was born in the northern city of Porto and enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts to study sculpture but ended up finishing a degree in architecture.

After working with renowned architect Alvaro Siza Vieria, he eventually opened up his own office and has gained international recognition. Endit