“....I would like to try to expose my vision of architecture through the projects I have accomplished, or simply imagined, as my thoughts are cemented therein.”

“Once again, this is the starting point: a second spontaneity achieved through the instinctive sublimation of knowledge. As in dangerous navigation: you can always sink, and there are plenty of shipwrecks.....”

“Over the course of his long and prolific career, Álvaro Siza has rarely spoken firsthand of the process guiding his practice. Instead, this small but attentively edited publication, allows this little-known dimension of his to emerge.”

“potent not only for understanding Siza’s practice over many decades, but for undertaking architectural design or architectural criticism and history today.”

“I’m very happy to have this book, which since this translation into English I’ve read it for the first time in my life; read and re-read… One point which I find incredibly powerful in the book is this categorical statement – Architecture without nature is meaningless – that is, for me, maybe the one single statement in the book which is more arresting than any other.”

“More than any other architect I can think of, Álvaro Siza, has inspired me throughout my career. On reading ‘Imagining the Evident’, I rediscovered the same wonderful voice and was particularly struck by the urban themes Siza addresses. The relationship to urbanity is ever present in the book where project descriptions revolve around readings of existing places, conceived as additions to a process of urban continuity.

This wonderful book is full of lessons, and they include the need to be modest and generous, to be open-minded, and to manage doubt.”