Salmona spent nine years in Le Corbusier's atelier in Paris and came home to Bogotá in 1958 to spend the rest of his life arguing with what he had learned there. His material was fired brick, chosen for reasons he stated plainly: it is made from clay and gives work to many people; bogotano masons use it with munificence; its colour shifts with the light; and brick architecture belongs with the city's vegetation. From that one material he built ramps, spiral stairs, water courts and roof terraces that treat open space as the generator of covered space rather than its leftover. The Torres del Parque, the Museo del Oro Quimbaya and the Archivo General de la Nación show the range within a single palette. He received the Alvar Aalto Medal in 2003, the jury citing his use of authentic materials and his integration of landscape and urban planning.
