In Bolivia, ‘New Andean’ architecture applies new money to old traditions
In Bolivia, ‘New Andean’ architecture applies new money to old traditions
By Nick Miroff October 27
EL ALTO, Bolivia — Fanning out across the barren altiplano at 13,000 feet, this city is one of the fastest-growing in South America. It’s going up so quickly it looks like it’s still in sketchbook form, as if no one had time to add any color.
The streets are dusty and treeless. The houses and half-finished buildings are unpainted brick. A blinding sun blanches everything else. “It’s so monotonous,” said architect Freddy Mamani, for whom this is clearly a problem and a personal irritant. “It’s depressing.”
Mamani wants to liven things up. You might want to reach for your sunglasses. Walking into one of Mamani’s buildings is like coming out of a rabbit hole into an electric Bolivian wonderland. It’s a jolt to the rods and cones.
The interiors of his buildings feature two-story ballrooms that are a spellbinding tapestry of bright paint, LED lights and playful Andean motifs: chandeliers anchored to butterfly symbols, doorways that resemble owls and candy-colored pillars that could hold up a Willy Wonka factory.
One soaring wedding hall evokes the inside of a reptile, with arching roof beams that look like dragon ribs and huge orange curlicue moldings that could be alligator eyes. “We use the colors of our textiles, colors that are alive,” said Mamani, tracing his inspiration to the elaborate shawls and other traditional garments made by Aymara weavers like his mother. His buildings take those patterns, applied in plaster and paint.
Mamani, 42 and largely self-taught, is an architect with a rare kind of privilege. It’s not often that a single artist or designer gets a chance to define the aesthetic of an entire city.
More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-bolivia-new-andean-architecture-applies-new-money-to-old-traditions/2014/10/27/7be3a532-1fa2-443c-895a-ec9f3572ee49_story.html
[center]
Freddy Mamani, diseñador[/center]
Images of some of his work:
https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4TSND_enUS566US566&q=El+Alto+Bolivia+Freddy+Mamani&gws_rd=ssl&tbm=isch#imgdii=_
!!!!!!! Wow.
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