Barcelona´s Architectonical physiognomy

It’s Saturday, 10 in the morning, I have slept like a log. I’m concern that I have slept enough but I resist a little yet raising the eyelids. Brad Pitt, my gaudy yellow canary, its singing hysterically. That means that the Sun has decided to bright with absolutely resolution and without any doubt this starting day. Playing with my laziness, I decide to open the eyes and start to stretch my muscles. Just lying on my bed, watching carefully my room: family and friend’s pictures…I stop on one photo of my little sister Tere disguised as a classic dancer, I love that photo, she looks so sweety and funny. My heart always shakes when I watch it and I think of her. I look over the books and magazines on my library, all them are a summery of the passions that I have: poetry, arts, design, architecture, anthropology, philosophy and a large etc. I stretch again my muscles and crouch my body under the feather bedspread. It’s cold outside the bed and my body shivers with good vibrations, I feel happy and I start to make my day plan: the first idea that comes to my head is: I will go to run. I get so excited. I jump from by bed with that idea chasing my head. I raise the curtains and open the terrace door, what a gorgeous day! I need to inject some caffeine in my body in order to clear my mind at all. In the meantime the coffee comes out from the coffee machine I wash my face with cold water and go to feed Brad Pitt. He is so excited too. I refill his little swimming pool also with very cold water. I get an extra large cup of coffee and set on his site to have breakfast with him. He starts to jump crazy from one side to another inside his modest bird cage, drinks and at last decide to make his morning ritual bath. It’s so funny how he get inside the water and shake all his little body feathers. He last with the front hair in point like a real Punk.

I dressed up with shorts, a t-shirt, my favourite grey Abercrombie hood jersey, white socks and the Acsis sneakers. I tidy up a little my room and I go out home. The stairs seems that burns under my feeds, I’m jumping the stairs down to take the car. On my way to la “Carretera de las Aguas” the modernists’ buildings look proud superbly under the soft Mediterranean light. People in the street are delight with that sensation of relax and “buen rollo” as Spanish people said, that means like “good vibrations”.

Before I start to run I make some stretching, I put on my ears the headphones and switch on the radio on 105.7 Flaix Fm station where I can hear the latest and best Dance music. My heart starts to beat hardly. The soil is wet and it’s some mud. The wind shakes vigorously the trees and a curtain of yellow mellow leafs falls forming a thick and elegant autumn carpet. I breathe deeply and slowly in order to take a good cardiac rhythm. After 100 metres the spectacle starts: the Barcelona skyline under the magnificent heaven with the Mediterranean Sea at the back. Here you can appreciate a splendid architectonical physiognomy of the city: The organic Gaudí´s Sagrada Familia is like some terrific mountains or trees in the middle of the city, it looks like something made by the nature. The sensuality of the Acbar tower made by Jean Nouvel, The Palau Sant Jordi made by Arata Izozaky for the Olimpic Games in 1992 marked a before and an after with the Calatrava antenna like a sculpture on the Montjuic skirt and the Norman Foster´s Torre de Collserola just in front of me among other important and iconic buildings. I keep running; I cross with many different people: old couples, young groups in bicycle and families with their children. All are very different and genuine. The old people use to smile to me, like enjoying watching me running plenty of energy. I also enjoy with some old men that are also running, I admire them, in some way they are younger than me because they keep their spirit young although having an absolute white and shinny hair! They are heroes for me. After one and a half kilometre I arrived to the first viewpoint. I realised in a strange new building rising just on the shore of the sea…What the hell is that? Oh my god! I cannot understand why the government or whatever is responsible allows building a thing like this like this destroying the natural environment and landscape just in the middle of the sea line. For God’s sake, this is not Dubai! This is Barcelona, the architectonical history of this City has a great personality and it’s enough peculiar to worth a respect for the whole perspective. In Barcelona the architectonical physiognomy doesn’t needs showy or eccentric things. The city has a deep modernist footprint perfectly compatible with the new forms, materials and concepts. The buildings that characterize this Mediterranean city have a singular and peculiar elegance without eccentricities. Here the buildings doesn´t treat to show anything, contrary are discrete.

Whatever, I keep running overcoming my scare with more energy and faster. The sweat starts to fall through my neck and temples; I stop once on a fountain to refresh my head and neck. I can hear my heart beating strongly. I start to fly with my imagination over the city, I reach the sea and touch the salt water with the finger tips. Thank you Barcelona, I love you, with your imperfections and oppositions, with your multiculturalism, with your troubles but please, just keep your essence, be discrete, you don’t need to do eccentric things, just don’t betray yourself.

(photo from: http://www.barcelonaskyline.com/)

OUTDOOR LIFE (written in summer 2008 in spanish, so sorry :(

Vida OUTDOOR (escrito en verano 2008)

Un grillo parece haberse vuelto loco. Ando enfrascada en un libro, medio echada en una tumbona hecha de mimbre trenzado, con las piernas revueltas entre un pareo. Un parasol deja entrever unos tímidos rayos de sol, de manera graduada, de tal manera que no perturba mi ratito de lectura al atardecer. Levanto la vista, medio sonrío, ¿qué le debe pasar a ese grillo? Su cri-cri-cri me hace pensar que está con ganas de juerga, me lo imagino acicalándose para la noche. Hemos pasado un día muy caluroso, y ahora, al caer la tarde y levantarse la brisa parece que el tiempo se para. El libro que ando leyendo, no me absorbe suficiente y me abandono a las vistas del Mediterráneo. Recojo con la lengua el resto de sal que me ha quedado en la comisura de los labios y me regodeo en el último chapuzón que me he dado en el mar.

Una mano atenta, acaba de encender los farolillos que, desperdigados por el jardín, parece que se hayan encendido como lo hacen las estrellas. Una a una, muy lentamente, tiñendo el cielo de diminutos brillantes. Me alcanza un indiscreto olor a incienso arrastrado por el vaivén de las ráfagas del viento. Rojos, rosas y naranjas. Dios debe de ser pintor. Con el mar a lo lejos, el aire oxigenado por los árboles, el polen que juega al pilla-pilla parecen arrebatarme y ensancharme el alma hasta los confines del horizonte. Y otra sonrisa se me escapa al comprobar que mi sobrinita Tabita, de unos 45 cm de alto, pelo negro y alborotado, lleva dos horas tratando de atrapar una mariposa que parece reírse de ella, o quién sabe… con ella.

La vida “outdoor” es un respiro para los sesos y para la piel, es un reclamo, un “must” para nuestra rutina atrapada entre el asfalto y las prisas que nos persiguen en nuestra vida laboral. En nuestro ámbito privado, nuestra casa, una terracita, un jardincito son todo un lujo que vale mucho la pena mimar. Como un voladizo o un trampolín que nos permiten dar un bote de nuestro ajetreo y dejarnos llevar por el aire hasta tocar con la punta de los dedos el cielo. Una comida familiar; la paella de la abuela con gambas de Palamós, alrededor de una mesa… como dice mi hermana Ana, “la vida es lo que transcurre entre las comidas” con una botella de Vino de Rueda bajo el brazo. Sillas, mesa, tumbonas y parasoles son “los fondos de armario” para estos momentos mágicos, llenos de discusiones y riñas, que acaban en carcajadas. Así de simple. Así de genial.

En nuestra vida social, el espacio exterior se convierte en el parque en el que los humanos jugamos en nuestro mejor terreno, la tierra batida. Las conversaciones desenfadadas en una terraza al acabar el trabajo parecen refrescarnos los pies y las ideas, en el mismo momento que los labios son tocados por la espuma de una fría cerveza. Terrazas a pie de calle: mesas, sillas y parasoles. La cosa se vuelve más sofisticada en los lounges y espacios chill-out, donde apetece más un cocktail algo más elaborado a la luz de velas embriagadoras. Nuestros toboganes y columpios son esas chaisse-longues y asientos informales, que nos invitan a aderezar la conversación con frutas frescas, con racimos morados, como hacían los romanos.

La naturaleza es hermosa y los humanos sabemos disfrutarla llenando los espacios exteriores con elementos para propiciar tanto nuestros ratos de grande soledad como de interrelación.

Roots

When I was a child, my father used to took me to visit museums and buildings made by famous architects like Gaudi. My father has a contemporary design company and he always has loved the architecture, art and design. I always have had a very close relationship with him, I admire him because he always explain me a lot of interesting and exciting things. He has a great sensibility and is like a philospher. We use to spend our summer holidays at the mountains of Switzerland, in concrete, in Verbier. During our excursions throught the mountains, where we found an analogy to the hyperbolic paraboloids that used to use Gaudi in his bovedas, he encouraged me to appreciate the beauty and majesty of the nature, the glaciers, the silent of the mountains and talked to me about the "Great Architect" that "built" those wonders. Furthermore, he taught me about the great value of the effort to get the summits of the mountains. Therefore, I experienced about the plenitude after great efforts, not just climing the mountains but also in the every day life. As my father works making chairs and devoloping designs I started to have interested about design besides architecture. The first book that fall in my hands was "Thonet", the story of the first factory in the world that start to manufacturate curved wood chairs. I started to make some drawings of chairs. My teachers got early surprised because of the rest of the students draw without perspective contrary of me, i.e: the chairs with the 4 legs. This is nothing extraordinary but curious. All this experiences made me dreaming to be and architect from the 7 to the 13 years old approximatly.
Over the years, my father also explained me about the many things that surrounds the everyday life of his business. So my interests start to change course into to business world. So when I was like forteen I started to read about business magazines, The Economist, Actualidad Economica, Finantial Times...I became really passionate about leadership and management because I discovered that under the business life there is a complete philosphy based on the effort, overcoming obstacles, fighting in a team work. One phrase of The Economist Editor at the Spetial Survey for the 20th Century called "A Freedom´s journey" marked my memory: "The values for the XXI century are: humility, equality, fraternity" or something like this...I cannot remember exactly the three values but I kept the one: "Humility", because I always think that this is the most important value for CEOs, presidents and any kind of leadership.
Time arrived to go to University and at last I chose Business Administration.