Capturing Design Spirit
A brief post today as I return from a long weekend in the fabulous city of Barcelona. I only mention where I’ve been because my return to this city reminded me of something that is so apparent in the design language of that place – communicated throughout it’s buildings, public spaces, it’s art and products – Barcelona’s spirit.
Recognising Gaudi's unique genius - Casa Mila roof garden.
Capturing and indulging the spirit of a place is what gives it and it’s produce their flavour, their uniqueness. It’s something which flirts on the edges of what we can truly define but I think it is what makes us love places and things that remind us of them. Indulging spirit in design can create a kind of feedback loop between people, places and products. The design reflects them and they in turn reflect the design – a dialogue that forms and reforms the identity of places, regions and even countries, growing and evolving as it goes on.
People want to feel that the places they live and work in are theirs… those places and things should represent them in a way they want to see themselves.
In terms of buildings, places and products this is essentially what marketers call, ‘a point of difference’ – the unique selling point – and fostering and embedding the spirit of a place and people in design achieves this in a much greater way than any market analysis can do on it’s own. Because it does much more than that. It also connects people and place in a way that (if done well) makes them proud of where they live and who they collectively are. People want to feel that the places they live and work in are theirs and that they and the products they use represent them. Moreover those places and things should represent them in a way they want to see themselves.
Capturing and indulging the spirit of a place is what gives it and it’s produce their flavour, their uniqueness.
Fantasy & playfulness of represents & informs much of Barcelona's 'design spirit' (pictured: Miró's Dona i Ocell).
Barcelona as a city, a place and a people leaves me in no doubt as to it’s spirit: expressive, joyous, fantastical, embracing colour but occasionally reveling in the shadows. Princes of fantasy with strident vision such as Gaudí and Miró had great swathes of the city given over to them, financed to create in recognition of their individual genius. The results enliven brooding streets of gothic architecture and encourage and playfulness that has come to define the place and people and in response that same spirit infused and inspired to keep creating based on that ethos. It is not a perfect place. Nor is it a place where design has solved all it’s problems, but above all it provides, through design and the spirit encapsulated within, a sense that Barcelona is a city like no other in the world. That is a point of difference that provides real design value and which, ultimately can make any place a wonder and a joy.