The narration of architectural space through words and drawings is sometimes marked out by the abstract flow of the line and the aesthetic vividness that is always present in poetry. The first of a new series being put together by Ricardo Lampreave, this book on ‘the word and the drawing’ begins with a richly and abundantly literary foreword by Ángel M. García Posada, as well as with a lesson from Juan Luis Trillo de Leyva – in which he takes stock of notes taken by the Portuguese master Álvaro Siza.

Four architect professors in search of the mirror of architecture: memory, matter and vision brought back to remind us that the reality of the space surrounding the architectural is, in the final analysis, its representation. In spite of so many shadows occasionally cast, and the penumbra of our words, between penumbra and shadow is the space that becomes reality.

The book is a beautiful opuscule where words and drawings transport us to the places that architecture builds, always “north of the future”. As we already know, language is the most valuable instrument for formulating definitions; also for destroying them. The word cloaked by the shade of the drawing gives us more precision in unveiling the dreamt of language spoken by the drawn line.

These four professors invite us to contemplate the beauty enclosed in the transcendental material of architectural space. Like wind over wheatfields at night, I seem to have perceived the breeze of this maiden book, and highly recommend it.