There are houses high in the mountains of Bolivia that will make you believe in aliens
At an altitude of 4000 meters above sea level, the city of El Alto is located in the mountains of Bolivia. Mostly ochre-red, it is full of thousands of low brick houses, similar to matchboxes, whose unfinished and unpainted facades line dusty unpaved roads. The landscape is so dull, monotonous and depressing that locals have begun to enliven it with splashes of color wherever possible. They began to decorate their houses, turning them into structures with strange shapes, more like alien dwellings.
(12 photos in total)
At the head of this small—town architectural revolution is the self-taught architect Freddie Mamani Silvestre, whose pretentious buildings and flashy color combinations strive to capture the whole of El Alto. These buildings are called "cholets" — from the word "chalet" (chalet, big house) and "chola", an expression that the local Aymara Indians are called.
The city of El Alto was founded more than a hundred years ago and was originally a slum in the suburbs of the Bolivian capital La Paz. But in recent years, the suburb has outgrown La Paz and become the second most populous city in the country after Santa Cruz. In addition, it is one of the highest located megacities in the world and the fastest growing city in South America.
The changes began in 2005 with the coming to power of the current President of Bolivia, Evo Morales. The President comes from the Aymara people, and his election gave the representatives more self-confidence. He gave the Indian ethnic groups more political autonomy and supported their participation in commercial activities. Under Morales' leadership, the number of citizens living below the poverty line has decreased by one-third in the last ten years. By 2012, about 1.2 million Bolivians had become middle class. The architecture of Freddie Mamani Silvestre is a symbol of newfound self—confidence and economic recovery.
Some representatives of the Aymara tribe have improved their situation so much that they can afford to build their own chalet. Houses designed and decorated by Freddie Mamani Silvestre cost from 300 to 600 thousand dollars, and some are even more expensive. Among the wealthy merchants from the Aymara tribe, the architect's works are a symbol of high status.
Freddie Mamani Silvestre has managed to design sixty or seventy buildings in El Alto, and more than a dozen houses are under construction. The architect has ambitious plans: he wants to design city squares, bus stops and boulevards.
Although critics scold him for his bright colors and extravagant design, calling it kitsch, others compare him to Friedensreich Hundertwasser, a New Zealand artist and architect of Austrian origin. Some people believe that Mamani is able to do for El Alto what Antonio Gaudi did for Barcelona and Oscar Niemeyer did for Brasilia - completely transform the shape and aesthetics of the city.
The architect himself is full of confidence in his abilities: "In 20 years, half of the houses here will be built in my style."
Keywords: Bolivia | Mountains | Houses | Kitsch | Painting | Walls