#BarcelonaArchitecture | Valentina Expressions

Structure | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

06 Sep 2017 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ArchitecturalStructure, #BarcelonaArchitecture, #CityStructure, #StructuredFlowerArrangements, #WordPressPhotoChallengeStructure

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
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Depth | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

03 Feb 2015 3 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #AntoniGaudi, #BarcelonaArchitecture, #BarcelonaTravel, #CatenaryArches, #GaudiSerpentineSeating, #ParkGüell, #WPPhotoChallengeDepth, https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/depth

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/depth by BEN HUBERMAN

I cannot think of a person, designer or architect who has put so much depth in his work more than Catalan Architect Antoni Gaudi. One thing is to see his work on books and pictures and another thing is to see it in person. Finally when I made it to Barcelona, the depth of minute details in all his work really mesmerized me. Even the street pavement Gaudi designed outside the Pedrera building was outstanding, Gaudi’s work is recognizable by colorful broken tiles and organic material, undulating building, catenary arches and unusual columns, nature references, religious expressions and a load of colors.

Park Güell is colorful, there is a lot to absorb, the depth of games of architecture with nature is amazing! I sat on the mosaic serpentine seats for a long time admiring the detailed mosaic work and imagining how long it took the tile setters to put together all of that beauty. The seats are not just a pretty creation, they are ergonomic and even if they are built with stones, they are very comfortable, in fact I sat and watched the tourists, enjoyed the Mediterranean Sea out there beyond the city in the depth of the mist and fantasized how it could have been to work with Antoni Gaudi.

Walking under the columns of Plaça de la Natura, a public covered market that never made it, I felt the heaviness and the playfulness of Gaudi’s architecture. From the distance the ceiling covered with millions of tile chips resembles a snake skin and four medallions also made with colorful tiles tell the story of the effects the sun has on nature and people. Enjoy the slide show.

Plaça De La Natura

Park Güell – Columms Under Seating

Under the stone pillars

Park Güell Garden

Organic Arches

Colorful Serpentine Seating

Ciao,
Valentina

http://www.valentinadesigns.com

I am writing a travel diary with some of my new experiences and sharing with all of you my notes of feelings, observations, food-wine tasting, history, architecture and anything that really strikes my fancy. I organize trips for small groups of people who want to live it up in Italy and Puglia! In my books about Puglia cuisine, readers will find many easy recipes to follow at home. Check out my books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

ZigZag | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

04 Aug 2014 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #AntoniGaudi, #BarcelonaArchitecture, #BarcelonaSpain, #BarcelonaStyle, #BarcelonaTravel, #RedVoyageIntoColors, http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/zigzag

This week WP Photo challenge is Zigzag – http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/zigzag

Last May, I spent some time in Barcelona, one of my favorite cities in Europe. I shot photos of anything I fancied and as any tourist, most of the time, I walked with my nose up in the sky to catch the best details of architecture. However, in Barcelona in some are areas even the street pavement is decorated to perfection. Never know what you are going to find on the floor. This is after all Gaudi’s city, where the most undulated and creative architecture was planned.

On the way to la Pedrera, I saw this beautiful building on the Passeig de Gràcia. The balconies are perfectly aligned in the classic order, but the angle I chose to take it’s very deceiving, it shows the balconies in a zigzag line. Visually I like it better this way and if I was living in that zigzag illusion, I would be able to see inside the balconies below mine. Curious Valentina!

Passeig de Gràcia is a busy street, very fashionable shops and fancy buildings line this long street, where people stroll for fun to lose a few hours. That is a fun European past time. Get out for fresh air, window-shopping, licking an ice cream, sit at a café, converse with a walking companion and lose a few hours. It’s so refreshing!

I would like to live in that building, would you? Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina will host one or two trips a year to Italy and Europe. In Italy especially, she will take her small groups to the non-commercial Italy, areas not beaten down by massive tourism. Valentina will guide the tours through art, architecture, food, shopping and special adventures organized for people who want to live it up! Check out her books on