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landscape does not change. I cannot make
the same building in Chicago and in Lisbon.
JP: Exactly. You cannot change the climate,
for example. When I was young, I did not pay
any attention to these things, but with age I
have come to understand more and more that
I am a product of a local situation. I person-
ally have had the fortune of travelling around
the world and knowing the world, but I have
realized that I see it from a very distinct point
in southern Finland.
ESM: When I started working as an archi-
tect, I was afraid of windows. When I had to
design a window, I panicked. It is the most dif-
ficult thing you can do in architecture. Open-
ing a negative in a wall is very complicated.
JP: Also, the window is the most power-
ful way of connecting your building with the
landscape. That brings us back to this idea of
place. Merleau-Ponty has an interesting argu-
ment when he says that we do not come to see
the work of art, but the world according to the
work of art. And I think that is the essence of
architecture, what a window reveals.
ESM: Perhaps that’s why, like a Matisse
painting, they are so difficult to design. Last
week we won a competition for a theater where
we reused a facade of a disciple of Perret, with
vertical windows and an elegant proportion.
I liked the idea of having a conflict between
Perret and Le Corbusier, with horizontal and
vertical windows, so I proposed both kinds
of windows in the same part of the building.
Finally they advised me not to use horizontal
windows, which surprised me because it was
such an authoritarian ban in the 21st century.
JP: That makes me think that as a real
architect you have to reinvent the window
every time.
ESM: That’s right. And it is dramatic for
me… I think that Siza or Moneo, in the morn-
ing, after brushing their teeth, design a win-
dow. Just like that. They are naturals. When
Siza and I designed the Portuguese pavilion
in Hannover, the pavilion was built with a
cork facade, a very abstract curved roof, a big
wall, and a kitchen behind. Once, visiting it
with Siza, I told him: “Alvaro, there is a big
problem because the firemen say we have to
«We have to rebuild
the geography. You can
move ideas around, but
the physical landscape
does not change»
