The single greatest and most fascinating “futurist” architecture movement in the world right now is happening in Bolivia, where national prosperity and a dedication to works for the poor and public housing led to an explosion of colorful styles inspired by Aymara Indian art. There should be more articles about this, the interiors are just as amazing. Incidentally, most of these buildings are not for the rich or in trendy neighborhoods, but are public housing. I’ve heard this style referred to as “Neo-Andean” but like most currently thriving styles it doesn’t have a universally agreed on name yet.
I feel like it needs to be more than one person doing it for it to be a “movement”. All of these are by Freddy Mamani, and not a single one is public housing—they’re all aimed at the Aymara nouveau rich and have commercial and office space on the lower floors for the owners (who live in the penthouses you see on top) to rent out. They’re quintessentially bourgeois.
(Neo-Andean is Mamani’s term for it. The people who have to live around them apparently just call them cholets.)
yes, the government rarely has done any social housing that i know of, but they’ve made some apartments in El Alto after the neo andino got very popular and they commissioned Roberto Mamani Mamani (famous Bolivian contemporary painter) to paint murals on them. They carry similar striking color palettes
Also worth noting micros (buses) in La Paz and Cochabamba are decorated like here below, they have kept that aesthetic since the 70’s or before I think?
If im correct both Mamani-Mamani and Freddy Mamani have said their inspiration for their work was their colourful culture, you can see the liberty they’ve taken with color and particular color combinations in design is very specific to the western-mountain side of the country, something that doesn’t happen as much in the eastern side.
