Feliz Año Nuevo, Happy New Year! Above is a shot of the sunrise from our hotel overlooking the beautiful city of Barcelona on Jan 1, 2017…
My winter holiday in 2016 was all about journeying through art, design, architecture, food and wine in the lovely countries of Portugal and Spain.
If you may know me by now, I often refer to “Shapes and Forms” when I talk about hair cutting. Hair cutting is all about putting the right architecture on one’s unique landscape (ie. scalp / face shape / bone structure etc.). I love Geometry in designs. I love seeing how various shapes influence the overall result or how overlapping shapes can create other interesting shapes.
So the highlight of my trip this time was probably seeing and feeling the art created by the great Catalonian architect of Art Nouveau, Antoni Gaudi. Walking through and experiencing his buildings was both shocking and awe inspiring.
For instance, the Sagrada Familia which so far is the world’s tallest church measuring 172m, almost looks like a pile of muddy melting candles from the outside; but step inside and you are “blown away” by the surprisingly bright colours, airiness and spectacular ethereal feel…
You stroll through a white forest with immense trees soaring high up into heaven…
The multiple rays of colours pouring through the stained glass were analoguous to a symphony… You could almost hear the music playing… It was so incredibly beautiful!!
Nature was Gaudi’s greatest inspiration for the structural engineering of his buildings down to the smallest decorative details such as the door handle or chairs. Geometry is found everywhere in Nature. Not only are the organic shapes visually beautiful, they all have some form of function and that is what Gaudi precisely valued: That design had to serve humanity.
Walking through some of his famous residential buildings such as Casa Mila (better known as La Pedrera) and Casa Batllo was like entering Alice’s Wonderland, aesthetically ‘distorted’ but extremely logical. Now THIS is what it’s like to be “living in a work of art”!
Probably the most memorable one was Casa Batllo because being inside it made me feel so HAPPY :)!! Here are some shots inside:
Inspired by the depths of the ocean, Gaudi used 5 different shades of blue. The further down you go, the lighter they became to distribute equal amount of light. About 15,000 tiles were used for the center patio well. The windows got larger towards the bottom floors to maximize light.
The ‘spiral’ design in the ceiling reflecting the movement of the Universe– a phenomena that Gaudi liked to use in many of his buildings for structural and decorative purposes. Standing under it almost felt as though you were being sucked into the eye of a tornado…
Bright rooms with curvilinear large windows accentuated with brilliant colours from the stained glass above.
2017… Let’s promise ourselves that every day we will create and accumulate our very own experiences (whether big or small), and cherish them every moment. So that by the end of the year, we would end up with a one-of-a-kind masterpiece filled with inspiration, knowledge and new growth.
Live life as though you’re the Artist working on your Masterpiece!
Cheers to you — and cheers to a prosperous and inspired New Year!
Yoko’s Haute Coiffure & b-yu Head Spa Team
* NB: The salon will reopen for business on January 5, 2017. Please check our website www.b-yu.com for the latest news.