It’s that time of the year

The sun is shining, seagulls are singing, people sunbathing on the beach and no, it’s not summer coming, but the contrary.  End of November and despite the wonderful weather Christmas mood is in the air in Barcelona. So far i’ve experienced the magic of Christmas in my home country and in England and honestly i can tell that the Christmas spirit is definitely stronger in England. Stores start selling decorations and treats in the early beginning of November, decorations and fancy lighting everywhere, children singing Christmas carol and all that festive feeling when you visit the local pub, wonderful, right? In spite of all that I prefer spending my Christmas in Bulgaria, simply because this is where my family and friends are. This year won’t be an exception, but it is nice to see and experience a new type of Christmas, warmer( talking about the weather) and more…, Spanish.

The decoration of the city is mesmerising, lights everywhere and every street has it’s own unique decoration, which makes it so exciting and interesting to explore. But the thing I loved the most are some of the tiniest streets in the Gotic quarter. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to take good night pictures, but I hope that would make you, visit Barcelona and see everything i’m talking about.

And like every big city in Europe, Barcelona has it’s own Christmas market and it’s not only one, there are three of them, although it’s not like the traditional German markets or the ones in England. Here they don’t really sell drinks and treats but mainly handmade christmas decorations, all locally made.

Exam Week and Designing a chair

It is the least week before Christmas break and it is exam week. I am not used to having exams, because in Coventry we never do, but luckily I had only one-in Construction. Yes, it was tough. We were examined on different type of building structures, forces and different materials and their use.

Also after the winter break we are starting a new project, designing a chair, using minimal materials and applying the laws of physics we already learned. It’s a group project, but I decided to work alone on this one. I am sharing some of my initial sketches and ideas.

Boqueria Project

La Boqueria is a market different from any other I’ve seen before. It is a main touristic attraction and now I see why. It’s busy, loud, humid, sticky, nerve-racking, but also colourful, lively, curious, exciting and so so international. I will not bore you with history, I would only say it’s been in Barcelona for quite a while. It has all the goods and products you can buy in every other market, but here the presentation is excellent. Everything is exposed as if for an exhibition. It is all tidy and clean and just begging you to take pictures and than show the rest of the world. It has all those pavilions for fruits and fruit juices, which are actually a saviour in the hot summer days, and tiny bars, that welcome you to try every traditional treat Spain and Catalonia have to offer.

For me as a tourist this place is magnificent, and I feel lucky that I am living here for a hole studying year and that I have the chance to visit it almost every week and try something different. The things get a bit different from the local customer point of view. If you actually want to be a regular customer it might be a bit nerve-racking. Tourists everywhere, taking pictures, pushing people, yes it’s annoying. And of course when there are two different sides, two different opinions a conflict is born. Part of the merchants are happy with all the tourist attention, the other part not.

And here comes the question, why Boqueria project? Well, when there is a conflict someone has to find a solution for it and in this case there is a designer needed. So, this is my first project-research how other markets around the world deal with such problems, analyse all the aspects of the conflict and find a solution.

We started the project with group work, we were put in groups of four people, which actually helped me meet some of the students in my class and get to know them better. There were 3 different types of groups, the first one graphic analysis of the conflict, second one-analysis of the uses and third one-analysis of the users. I was put in the second group and our work consisted of observing the uses of a traditional market, uses of the specialised markets, uses of touristic attractions and use of all the services provided. We visited the market, talked to both merchants and customers-tourists and locals. We also investigated where the conflicts occur and which are the most affected areas.

After finishing our group work and after presenting, we found out that there is more than one conflict. I was put in another group and we had to discuss all the problems, chose one and start thinking about solutions. It was really interesting for me, because all the other members of the group were local students and I was the tourist so we had the different opinions within the group which I think helped understand each side better. We counted more than 10 different conflicts.

I chose one which was one of the main ones for me. Everyone was complaining about the collision of people at the entrance of the market and the fact that local customers cannot reach the stalls at the bottom of the construction. Also the market is situated on a street called La Rambla (which by the way is one of the busiest streets in Barcelona) and there is no resting spot anywhere in this area. My solution was to rearrange a bit the stalls, saving the original layout, design a booth that would simplify the use of the bars and may be create a small resting area.

To be continued…

Chapter 3 – Studies

It’s about time I start talking about my actual studies here in Barcelona, after all I am an Erasmus STUDENT. In this blog post I am going to share information about the subjects I am taking and about the differences I’ve noticed in the teaching process in BAU and the one in Coventry University.

I am an Interior Design student and this is why I chose mainly Interior Design subjects, but I also wanted to try something different and may be enhance my knowledge in other design areas like Graphics and Fashion. Here in BAU the teaching process consists of different classes every day of the week, different subjects, different projects and would you believe it homework every single day. The classes start 9am every morning and finish around 2pm in the afternoon, after that you are allowed to stay as much as you want in the university, working on your projects.

The first week of the year I was given the opportunity to try all the subjects I am interested in and than chose the ones I like. I was so excited I took 8 different subjects and I was really hoping to do them all. Unfortunately after two weeks I realised that the teaching process is so different from the one I am used to in Coventry. I couldn’t manage my time properly, I had so much work to do, I didn’t sleep I didn’t eat and I hated every second of my time. That’s when I decided I am going to drop some of the classes I wasn’t that interested in and do the ones that are really beneficial for me. So, after one very tiring month I ended up doing the following classes:

Interior Design Projects

Spacial Workshop

Construction and Installations

Light Design

Product Design

Graphic Design Projects.

I can definitely say that the amount of work is tremendous. The difference with Coventry is that here we do all that classes at once, while in Coventry we have different modules that come one after another. I realised that in real life no one would wait for me to finish one project and start the another, in real life everything happens at once and I had to get used to really, like really work under pressure and learn to manage my time.

For now I am doing fine, although there’s not much time for ‘getting lost’ in Barcelona. But luckily the projects are interesting and would be a good addition to my portfolio.

Giving new life-DIY Project

When I first moved to Barcelona I noticed that there were plenty of furniture and home accessory thrown away on the streets. Later I researched and apparently here for every neighbourhood there is a day during the week when people can get rid of all their unwanted belongings, leave them on the streets (next to the rubbish bins, of course) and in case someone likes something they can take it, if not, later in the evening of the same day all of the unwanted pieces are collected and thrown away. So I guess this is kind of recycling. I also noticed that there actually were people that collect some of the things, repair them and reuse them or in some cases sell them. I really liked this idea of giving new life to the old unwanted furniture and because I was in a desperate need of a small coffee table in my room, I decided instead of being, I’m going to start “looking” around for something interesting. And there it was after a few days i saw a big pile of wooden shelves and cupboards and also an old, broken chair. I pictured the chair as a table and I took it. Fortunately it wasn’t too heavy. and I had to carry it only a few blocks away.

I cleaned it, repaired it and repainted it. I found it hard to choose a colour, because i wanted something playful and fun. My bedroom is colourful enough though, so I sticked to the favourite, clean and minimalistic white. At one point I was thinking of removing the back of the chair, making it look more like a proper table, but I didn’t have the right tools and honestly I preferred to leave it as a chair. It kind of adds uniqueness.

I struggled to find the right top for my “table”, until one day again hidden in a pile of unwanted ‘junk’ I found this marble round top, which was a perfect fit.

And this is it now my cute little corner. I loved the whole creative and looking for parts process. It is always nice, at least for me, to try to look for solutions and redesign and recycle old things, give them new life. After all we have to be eco friendly. So for me this is the start of a new project. Who would’ve thought that my Barcelona experience would be collecting furniture from the streets. Well it’s a small part of it. For someone it may look weird and not appropriate, but a little DIY now and then doesn’t harm anyone, especially not the environment.

Barcelona Street Art 1 PHOTOBLOG

Barcelona is an amazing city with beautiful and unique architecture. Seriously, there is not a single building that I don’t like or I’m not amazed by. You have Gaudi and Miro‘s work almost everywhere, which makes Barcelona even more interesting and attractive, but for this post I’ll guide your attention to Barcelona’s street art. You’ll need a good eye for the detail and plenty of free time to explore the city, but you’ll definitely find art worth seeing. May be it’s not for everyone, may be someone will say that it’s just stupid drawings or ugly scribbles, but it expresses opinion, ideas, personality and for me it’s truly inspiring. How can street art inspire an interior design student? You’ll see in my future posts.

To be continued…

Long waited…

This post might not be really connected with me being an Erasmus student, but sure forms part of my experience. In the month of November I had two very special for me people visit me in Barcelona. We’ve dreamed about going together on a trip to Barcelona for years. I remember us sitting in one of our last Spanish classes, just before graduation, planning our trip. We were so determined we were going to go, we discussed all the places we were going to visit, all the bars and clubs we were going to try, all the people we were going to meet, even all the clothes we were going to wear and yes, sounds a bit lame, but come on we were regular teenagers with traveling spirits. Unfortunately we had to postpone our plans with a year, because the girls were starting their studies abroad later this year, so they had more important things to think about. It happened the next year again, this time it was my turn to move to a foreign country, and than we postponed it for the next year and than again the next year. So when I moved to Barcelona, this was all we needed for our reunion. The girls booked their flights, packed their luggage and the rest is.. well, not history, but a small, but special dream come true, that I will definitely remember.

BAU-Interior point of view

My University here in Barcelona, BAU, was built on the place of an old factory, in fact the whole neighbourhood is kind of industrial area, with loads of factories, workshops and filling stations. I like the result the designers ended up with, it’s colourful and somehow brings the art side of the building, as BAU is a design school. So, I decided to share some photos with you.

Chapter 2 – BAU

Finally my first day in Uni came. As I already mentioned I am a UK Interior Design student, gone on Erasmus for a year in Barcelona. I am a student of Coventry University and for the next few months I will be sharing my ideas, experience and ‘lovely’ personality with students and staff of BAU, Barcelona- Centro Universitario de Diseño.

To be completely honest my first few weeks in BAU were really stressful, not only because everything was so new to me, but because most of my classes were in Catalan, which I didn’t really understand. But it was exciting.

I had the opportunity to chose from variety of classes, focused not only in Interior Design, but in design as a whole. I attended classes like Design History, Graphic Design Projects, Typography, Interior Design Projects, Construction and Installation, Product Design, Design Workshops, Textiles and Materials. Yes, the first 2 weeks were tough. Although I really wanted to take all of the classes I had to drop a few of them, because simply the amount of work is tremendous and even if I wanted I would never be able to pass all of them. The ones I ended up doing are I believe the most beneficial for me. When I came to Barcelona I wanted to find inspiration and ideas for my final project next year and I can honestly say that with the classes I ended up doing, I already have things in mind and looking forward to  turn them in ideas and may be later realise them as projects.

So.., exciting news so far, in my future posts I will try to give updates on my projects, share some of my work and hopefully get some feedback.

Island Adventures Part III

My second week in Mallorca I finally got to visit the capital Palma. I expected it to be smaller but it actually looked like a busy big city.

The next few days I spent in Alcudia, it’s the main city where all the tourists go. The beach is massive, compared to the ones in the smaller towns and the sand looks and feels more like flour than actual sand.