While looking through my photos for the last snowfalls in recent years, I ran into this striking April sunset from a few years ago:
The little pond is just down the street from us. I quite like living in the woods! đ
The city of El Alto in Bolivia, high up in the Andes, is the country’s second largest city and right next to the third largest one, La Paz. Something that El Alto beats its richer neighbor in is unique eye candy right on the building facades.
That’s because an architect, Freddy Mamani Silvestre, is slowly working bright colors into El Alto’s red-brick and concrete scenery.
via Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Information on Silvestre seems scant in English. A member of the indigenous Aymara, he apparently started working on buildings as a bricklayer. There’s a feature on El Alto in The New York Times in 2013 and in The Washington Post in 2014. He’s referred to in a 2014 BBC News article on president Evo Morales. The Architectural Association, Inc., still has their exhibition info Salones de Eventos from 2015 available online. I also found two articles via the German Wikipedia entry for Silvestri: one in The Architectural Review and the other in Quartz, both from 2015. The best bet at the moment might be the 2017 book El Alto by Silvestre and Peter Granser. For Spanish readers there’s more, including the 2014 book La arquitectura de Freddy Mamani Silvestre.
SalĂłn Montecarlo by Alfredo Zeballos / The Architecture of Freddy Mamani Silvestre. Via Quartz.
Silvestri draws on traditional shapes and colors in his designs. Some of the detailing reminds me of jugend (I believe the phrase art deco is used in the U.S. instead), but Silvestri’s work is clearly not derivative of it.
If the exteriors seem colorful and detailed, just wait until you see the interiors!
Wow! His style has been described as Neo-Andean, new Andean, space-ship architecture or, plainly, kitch. However you may want to describe it, the word colorful will have to be there!
Found via Colossal.
Note: I wasnât paid or perked to mention this; just passing along a good thing.
The other day I was thinking of last December. I went through some photos to remind myself of everything that happened and ran into this gem. At the very end of last year, we were treated to gorgeous, glittering woods after snowfall:
It was really hard to get the light and shadow balanced well; this is one of my better shots, I think, in that respect. The light on the icy trees is so beautiful!
Spring is my absolute favorite time of the year, but summer is great, too. A case in point: a July sunset near our house from a few years ago:
Isn’t it amazing? I find the pink cloud cover turning gradually to purple especially striking.
In business-related news, I’m taking a few days off to attend my cousin’s wedding. My Etsy shop is in vacation mode for the duration, and instead of a fresh post, I’ll be reblogging from my hobby blog Co-Geeking on Monday.
True to my Finnish roots, Iâm taking a few days off again to enjoy the midsummer.
Both the Playfully Grownup Tumblr and my personal one will keep tumblinâ, however, and I will keep an eye on the shop. I’ll resume posting here on Monday 27th.
Hyvää juhannusta!
In Finland, Midsummer is called the nightless night. Here in Massachusetts we don’t have the magical, light, still summer nights that Finland has, but June has its own share of beauty.
Iâm taking a few days off to celebrate Midsummer. My Tumblr will keep tumblin’, and I will keep an eye on the shop, but otherwise nothing will happen until next Thursday.
Hyvää juhannusta!