This book collects four writings by Aldo van Eyck: “Like that other gift”, “R.R.P (Rats, Posts and other Pests” “Symmetry from the bright side” and “The Circle and the Center”. As Alejandro Campos Uribe mentions in the introduction: “These texts are part of lectures and articles written by Van Eyck between the 1970s and 1980s, full of strong criticisms of postmodern architecture […] Although he reacted against the pseudo-functional turn of Modern Architecture developed from within CIAM, he tried to find an alternative to both polarised positions during his theoretical discourse between the 1940s and 1980s.” Van Eyck’s fierce critique of banality and his call to reason can be understood, even now, as a lesson for the present and future of architecture.