Structure | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

During my travels, I carry a note pad to write about anything that strikes my fancy and that is different from things I see every day in the places I live normally. Most of the time, when I visit foreign countries, I walk around with my head turned up to discover things above me. I take notes of building structures and architecture details. I note people face, gestures and the way they dress. I am interested in learning how foreign cultures structure vegetation and arrange flowers, then upon my return to my base, I am able to offer a new knowledge to my clients.
In America, city vegetation is tightly structured together in an array of colors and shapes composition, so very different from the arrangements of European countries.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).

I remember in Japan, flower arrangements outside shops, are made only of one color composition, very subtle and structured into cascading effect.

In Barcelona, Spain, I noticed something new. In most city intersections, buildings are squared off or rounded off, in such a way that the intersections look friendlier, more open and inviting, instead of the typical 90º angle buildings all looking at the center of the intersection.

Corner balconies in those squared off buildings are beautifully structured and decorated to add interesting architectural details, visible in all sides of the intersection.

Fountains in European cities, set in the middle of the piazza, had two utilitarian functions in the past. Usually, women went to the fountain to fill up their buckets with clean running water, walked back to their home, used that water in cooking and bathing. Next day they repeated the chore. The second function was to provide cool drinking water to people strolling in the piazza at leisure.

That water is still amazingly cool and so much-needed under the scorching Summer heat, when nothing works but water. Street fountains in Europe are charming, some are historical, many are anonymous, yet, everybody knows them and some have witnessed many love stories.
It’s common to say: “Meet me at that fountain….in Piazza……” they are still structured as a point of social gathering.

“The world is a book, and those who don’t travel only read one page.” ― Augustine of Hippo.
What is your quirk when you travel? Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian interior designer in business since 1990. She is passionate about colors and all expressive arts. She is a “colorist”. To her, selecting art means to bring out the best energy of her clients and nourish their soul. She trots the world and loves to write travel notes, from which she draws inspiration to design home interiors of her clients .
She is the author of her book on the subject of colors: ©Red-A Voyage Into Colors available on
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