Airports and Arquitecture

Hello and welcome to another journey through my favorite things in Madrid. This week i am going to let you in on a little secret, ready? I just spent ten glorious days in Cape Town, and really, you can’t get any better than Cape Town, bohemian, hippy artsy beach town on the South African coast, cheetahs walking around vinyards, penguins and baboons share space with tourists at the beach, an impressive collection at the National Gallery surrounded by a beautiful botanical garden, the scent of an African renaissance filled with hope for a future where human rights and equality are taken for granted by all citizens of the world…The funniest Nigerian family hosting all sorts of exotic bashes…and yet, here is the secret: this morning, after a brutal 14 hour journey, not even my missing piece of luggage (that’s right in Spain we say: “no falla,”) was able to wipe the smile off my face, because ladies and gentleman, I have always loved landing in Barajas…there is one word that springs to mind to describe Madrid’s airport: “simpatico”…And so I add Madrid’s Terminal 4, the Richard Rogers designed wing in Barajas airport that stands as a testament to the 7 million visitors that came to the city this year, to the list of my favorite things in Madrid…You might think, how silly, I did not come visit a city to look at it’s airport…stop, architecture is one of the art forms that most influences a society, how it develops, what it values…let me tell you about Lord Richard Rogers, Pritzker awarded, became uber famous for designing the Pompidou in Paris with Renzo Piano, truly believes that his responsibility is to contribute to creating the best quality of life for the maximum amount of citizens possible, a humanist, who also tickles us with his idea that Spain has taken over France’s position as the most dynamic business and cultural centre in Europe right now... Let me admit first, that I am a bit biased, Richard’s son Roo is a friend, and the Rogers family welcomed me in their Chelsea home in London, and they are all so warm, and funny, genuinely dear people, that it would be hard for me to say anything critical about Richard’s work…Having said that, trust me when I say that I adore the new terminal, the mixture of elements and textures, wood and metal, the colors on the ceiling, the feeling of space all around…Trust me, it is worth the trip, Terminal 4 has added a whole new cool factor to our city, fans of design and architecture have to check it out…The terminal is a reflection of the new reality of travelling, less national borders, tighter security, and many more citizens of the world…like yours truly…
And speaking of citizens of the world, and just to tie things back to my South African experience, I recently met a fantastic theatre director who was born in South Africa…Stephen Rayne, once second director of London’s National Theatre, came to Madrid to put on the new Jesus Christ Superstar…Stephen is brilliant, having brunch at Nina’s on la calle Malasaña he explained to me the joys and difficulties of directing a musical in Madrid, especially this musical: “I keep hearing about this guy Camilo Sexto..” (for those of you who don’t know, Jesus Christ Superstar was a huge hit in the seventies in Spain, and the cast was lead by Camilo Sexto)…I felt obligated to go see it, solidarity, Stephen and I were both born in Africa, and was happily surprised even though I am not particularly a fan of musicals…the man knows what he is doing, he somehow makes what you would might think is an outdated musical a very current piece of theatre that makes you think…which is Stephen’s objective in the first place…so, an African tv presenter boasting about an airport terminal as an architectural symbol of the global citizen and a South African born director putting on the musical Jesus Christ Superstar…not what you might expect from Madrid? Long gone are the days of tinto,tortilla, and jamon, we are a kicking with sophistication 'aqui', in fact I’m thinking of convincing my bosses at Esmadrid TV to add Zulu to the languages we do our Esticktet show in…: if only I hadn’t packed my Zulu to English dictionary in that one suitcase that was lost….