Windows Into Latin America

The transparency paradox

Doors block your entrance and also invite, depending on whether they are closed or open.

But windows, like eyes, are meant to look out onto the world. Yet, like eyes, they also invite in a more intimate way. With glass, you can see in as well as they can see out.

They have permission to look out their windows on you, but can you look in—on them?

Tempting, and impolite.

I find windows a challenge to my curiosity—how do the folks behind such interesting windows live?

— Fernando Pagés Ruiz is ProTradeCraft's Latin America Editor. He is currently building a business in Ecuador and a house in Mexico. Formerly a builder in the Great Plains and the Mountain States, Formerly a builder in the Great Plains and the Mountain States, Fernando is also the author of Building an Affordable House and Affordable Remodel (Taunton Press).