Home Posts tagged "architecture"

Tag: architecture

Cholitas and Bolivia’s colonial hangover

Think of an image of Bolivia. Would it be those women with the bowler hats by any chance? How about its famous, sweater wearing president Evo Morales? The bowler hats make for an iconic image, because of course we recognise them as our own culture implanted into an alien environment. The president’s sweater, proudly worn as a testament to his indigenous heritage, is however, only marginally less of an import: it may be made from local alpaca wool but needles…

Continue reading

Soul of the city: Alexandria, Egypt

Digging under the surface of Egypt’s famous city    Probably the most important thing about Egypt’s second city according to its residents, is that it certainly isn’t Cairo. In particular they’ll tell you that it’s not as busy, dirty or noisy as the capital, which might come as a bit of a surprise to a westerner arriving in Alexandria who had yet to see Cairo, for by European standards it is all these things, even if it pales in comparison…

Continue reading

Finding Allah in the ceilings and doors of Tunisia

If you forget to look up in Tunisian buildings  you could be missing out on some spectacular craftsmanship and even the humble door often has as much, or of not more merit than what lies behind it.  In these days of mass production and ruthless efficiency it’s easy to forget that once, people put love and pride into everyday things in a way that is often, now lost, even for many who can afford it. For Muslim craftsmen there is…

Continue reading

Multistorey Glory

Celebrating the treasures of Soviet, multistorey, concrete buildings and their enduring legacy When traveling the former Soviet Union, one of the true pleasures in life is the opportunity of standing under the magisterial, architectural creations that gave us such joyous images of that sadly departed era. A recent visit to Ukraine, Moldova and Transnistria furnished me with the chance to revel in some fine examples of hi-rise construction. In case you are wondering, Transnistria is that delightful corner of south-eastern…

Continue reading

Soul of the city: Kiev, Ukraine

It took me two weeks to work out what was wrong with Kiev and that’s because, on the surface of it, there’s nothing particularly wrong with it at all. Eventually I came to realise that all was not as it should be. Strolling its boulevards and broad streets, the European will feel at home amongst the grand 19th century architecture, after all this was an era when Tsarist Russia was so enamoured by life to their west that French was…

Continue reading

How to waste $56 million in Bangladesh

$56 million is a lot of money, unless  you are a Saudi prince or a US arms manufacturer but, in a country as poor as Bangladesh, it’s a shit load of cash which could be spent on no end of worthy projects to help those suffering from poverty. But rich film-maker Ahsanullah Moni had a better idea to help the poor, he would build them a replica of the Taj Mahal. No doubt the masses were dancing in the streets…

Continue reading

Kolorful Kalimantan

As its new year I am sure you all need a bit of colour to cheer you up, particularly after some of my more gruesome posts recently. If you are languishing in post-Christmas poverty, having mortgaged your soul to pay obscene heaps of food and booze to wash away the pain of regular employment, let me at least offer you a hint of sunshine. After a few weeks in Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo, buildings back home are going to seem rather…

Continue reading

Soul of the city: Astana, Kazakhstan

Anyone who employs an internationally acclaimed architect to design an iconic building for a brand new capital city, with a brief to combine state of the art design, whilst paying reference to the country’s cultural heritage and then goes and sticks a shopping centre in it, is clearly someone who does not know the meaning of the word soul and will never know the meaning of the word soul. Whether or not it was Kazakhstan’s strong man of politics (regional…

Continue reading

Soul of the city: Baku, Azerbaijan

Baku old town is everything any decent, respectable tourist could ask for: a UNESCO world heritage site with nice old buildings, impeccably clean narrow winding streets and posh cafes. I am not however, a decent, respectable tourist and the more I walked around the less I liked it. Objects protected as if in glass cases are fine for museums but a town needs life, soul and vitality.  This was a sterile exhibit, stripped of its context and interaction with humanity….

Continue reading