Syd meets Santa

For those of you looking for a feelgood Christmas tale, look away now. This is a tale of architectural wonder… of reality, not make belive fairytale. This is where Santiago Calatrava stamps his signature on various places around the planet… and we gaze in awe (well, some of us do anyway).

He was born in Valencia and first came to my attention when visiting the Freedom Tower in New York City in 2017. Santiago Calatrava was responsible for the futuristic design of the new World Trade Center Transportation Hub.

So, where does Santa come into this picture, you ask. Well, seeing as you asked so politely… here I am in Santa Cruz, Tenerife, and would you believe it, Santiago Calatrava got here before me. He designed the Auditorium de Tenerife Adan Martin… a stunning performance venue on the harbour…

And what of Syd, you ask. Well, it’s just my random thinking that if you take a look at the Sydney Opera House when you’re next passing by that way, have a think of what those architectural curves remind you of.

Until we speak again, as Juno often remarked… I might have been her erstwhile servant, but get a proper hobby fella, and pack in these random trains of thought 🤔

Old & New: Barcelona Style

“They don’t make them like they used to!” Of course not… it was a different time, different priorities, with less of the corporately bland requirements to have it done by yesterday. Oh, and health and safety hadn’t yet been invented.

But nobody told Gaudi and the Barcelona authorities that you can’t make them like you used to!

Take a stroll around the atmospheric Gothic Quarter and Barcelona Cathedral presents a dramatic example of what the 13th to 15th centuries had to offer the religiously inclined…

Then, if you’ve not had enough of the reflective devotion imposed by the incredible grandeur of such ecclesiastical trappings, take a further stroll (or few stops by Metro) to check out what the 19th to 21st centuries have to offer, c/o Antoni Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia

Until we meet again, whether it is then or now… WOW!