Alvaro Siza, the quietly respected Portuguese architect, is the recipient of the 2009 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Gold Medal. The award honors a body of work amassed over a lifetime that has had an international influence. Siza will receive the award at a ceremony at RIBA’s Florence Hall in February.

“He’s a very complete and profoundly thoughtful architect, and it’s high time he got the RIBA Gold Medal,” says RIBA President Sunand Prasad. “There’s no question that Alvaro Siza is of world stature, although he may not be so well known to architects globally, especially since we live at a time in which kitsch gets column inches and serious work often does not.”