We invited the renowned architect Gloria Cabral to share her vision of the window, an essential architectural element.
In this exclusive piece, she reflects on how openings go beyond their practical function, transforming into portals of light, connection, and new beginnings, revealing the profound poetry embedded in the act of design.
Janelar
“Airing out our spaces,
letting the wind flow through them, creating ventanas (Spanish),
making wind’s eyes—windows (English, from vindauga, Old Norse),
or pores in the walls, fenêtre, finestra, fenster (French, Italian, German).
I imagine this has been architecture’s desire since the occupation
of caves, since the first huts, this original yearning for openings. Later,
with new materials, the entry of light became possible:
sometimes through flattened horns, other times stretched skins or even paper.
With the discovery of glass, a new world of possibilities opened.
But in Portuguese, the way we name it is different:
Janela, derived from Januella, the diminutive of janua
A small door, a little portal. Janela comes from the Roman god Janus,
the god of beginnings and endings, transitions and decisions, the same
god who opens the year in January.
So, to imagine a Janela in a project is to express the beginning
of something, the start of a landscape, a sky, a light, scents, or new winds.
Designing a Janela is choosing what we want to see,
how we want to start the day, what light we invite in, and how it enters.
Windows are the instruments connecting us to what surrounds the work.
And in Galicia, there’s an even lovelier word: Janelar. It turns sitting by a
window and contemplating into a verb.
To me, Janelar is to open a portal between inside and outside, past
and future, memories, and desires.”
About Glorial Cabral
Gloria Cabral (São Paulo, 1982) is a Paraguayan architect who was a partner at Gabinete de Arquitectura for 17 years. A protégé of Peter Zumthor in the Rolex Mentor and Protégé program (2014-2015), she designed the Teletón Children’s Rehabilitation Center, which won an award at the 2010 Pan-American Biennial. She received the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale (2016), the Moira Gemmill Prize (2018), and the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture (2021). She currently lives and works in Brazil.
