Dear Dr. Costa,

I arrived in São Paulo three weeks ago, and I am still struggling to find words for what I see. Barcelona taught me that a city is a conversation between centuries—Roman stone beneath Gothic arch beneath Modernista iron. But here, the conversation seems to have been interrupted. The coffee palaces of the Avenida Paulista rise from the red earth like monuments to a future that has already forgotten its past.

My patron, Senhor Almeida, has asked me to design a house for his family on a hillside overlooking the Pinheiros river. He wants something "European but Brazilian"—a paradox I am beginning to appreciate. The light here is unlike anything in Catalonia: heavier, more golden, as if the atmosphere itself carries the weight of vegetation.

I enclose a preliminary sketch. Please do not spare your criticism.

Yours sincerely,
Louis Vega