This interview with Hilde Heynen explores her path to becoming an architectural theorist. Raised in a middle-class Belgian family that valued higher education, she studied Latin and Greek before passing the engineering entrance examination at KU Leuven. She pursued philosophy alongside architecture, completing both degrees in 1981 and 1982 with theses on postmodernism that bridged the disciplines. A presentation at a 1989 symposium on Sigfried Giedion connected her with Stanford Anderson and K. Michael Hays, leading to opportunities at MIT and publication in Assemblage. Throughout the interview, Heynen argues that architectural theory remains relevant by keeping broader social, political, and philosophical questions central to architectural education.