(...) For weeks, the staircase connecting the floors of the Museum is the Architect’s priority. All his thinking revolves around it and its surroundings. He asks me for a set of handmade experimental models of different proposals for the stair flights, with their corresponding handrails and adjacent ceilings seeking the perfect perspective that will only be seen by the maintenance personnel. It is hard to believe how much effort he puts into a space that will not be experienced by the visitors, but it is known that this obsession will grant a differential quality to his work. He calls me to his office, I quickly pick up the model, and I literally run, as all collaborators do. This time it’s just the two of us. With his trembling hand he lifts up the model, and he carefully shuts one eye, trying to imagine himself inside that very space. Suddenly, he is enlightened. He poses the model over his head and with his other hand he starts to draw. It’s an indescribable moment. Like if I was witnessing the creation of something unique. (...)

Experience at Ávaro Siza, Oporto 2012