Batlló Light Well

This is another perspective of the central light well at Casa Batlló in Barcelona.  Casa Batlló is a grand house designed by Antoni Gaudí which is now designated a world heritage site. It’s hard to describe the artistry of this house which brings to mind organic themes from somewhere deep in the human psyche. Gaudi pushed beyond the limits accepted design over a hundred years ago and has become a source of inspiration for generations of architects.

Batlló Light Well
Casa Batlló Light Well in Barcelona                       prints

The genius of Gaudi must be experienced first hand, as for me it was an awakening of sorts. His designs resonate with me in a surprising way; I never thought I could be so moved by a house. He expanded the horizons of architecture and design a century ago and yet I suspect his work is still centuries ahead of its time.

more european images from the blog

Inspiration in whatever form is like a window into another world that can be glimpsed briefly, like hints of another world through a brief parting of the veil. Gaudi’s architecture, at least for me, is a premonition of a future that may one day exist, if not already in another world.

So these are some of the words I clumsily cobble together to describe my own experience and impressions of Antoni Gaudi’s work. Next time they might be completely different, but for this moment, they are for me a fleeting glimpse into another world.

more architecture photography from the gallery

Ancient Village

Ancient Village
Ancient Village of Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert in southern France                                      Purchase a fine art print for home or office

This is the ancient village of Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert in southern France. Walking the cobblestone streets I was stuck by how old everything was, yet the people living here seemed quite normal. That sounds ignorant of me, but it’s hard to imagine this setting in the modern world, yet here it is and people live their lives here, one foot in today and another in yesterday. A paradox of sorts I suppose.

A selection of other monochrome images in the gallery

For instance some people have satellite dishes and iPhones and MacBookPros. Yet the door to their home could be three-hundred years old. I saw a doctor riding through the streets on a motorcycle making a house call. I saw chickens in a coup, there were children in school on a treasure hunt; all normal things for sure. It’s a product of having been raised in North America, where the entire country is younger than the doorframe to one of these homes.

Maybe our modern cities will look like this in three hundred years from now. Not likely, our homes are not made to last longer than fifty years or so. But this is what happens when you build structures to last, you create a link to the past that people like me can stumble upon and end up wondering about the intermingling of centuries. Your thought for the day.