A couple bought a well known penthouse with ocean view. The notorious housing building is almost 30 years old. It emerged while I was attending college; ravishing at the time, it remains a majesty.  

They asked me to renew it by introducing minor changes – "an upgrade basically!"

I shivered! What a fear! Was it an invitation to desecration? 

How do you do the renovation of a masterpiece? 

How do you do the renovation of a masterpiece of an author at the peak of his activity? 

Will there be place for reinterpretation in a masterpiece?

Even if they call them "minor changes"?

I felt stuck into Crime and Punishment – Was I destined to yield to my hubris, only to repent of the heresy for the rest of my life?  

I confessed the restlessness to the author. Usually  sympathetic, after the surprise, he reassured me and I moved on. I did the research with himself. We got together twice.

I understood the untouchables and the susceptible of the work, then I freed him to his tasks.

We have preserved and restored, but not only. I did not hold back. I could not be absolutely faithful.  If I did it, it would have been my critical dissolution. The respect for Eduardo Souto Moura, the profound admiration of his work, can not radicalize me.

I subtly adulterated the kitchen, a handrail, a stone from a fireplace, and sacrificed a soaking tub.