The city of Cochabamba in Bolivia decided to make public transport a lot more visually stimulating for its people by splashing a load of colourful paintwork all over its buses. You have to wonder why more places don’t try something similar as its a great advert for the place and helps liven up the daily commute. Using some traditional design ideas brought up to date with modern stylings, the buses are highly distinctive but each driver has added their…
The wonders of African shop art. I may be in a small group of weirdo aficionados of African shop art but I can’t get enough of it so here are a few more examples from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, for my fellow weirdos. This was certainly enough to convince me I had to buy a beer in this bar The art form always has to catch up with new technology, though it has to be said that solar panels provide little…
The art of commercial vehicle decoration in Pakistan Other than for little boys and peculiar breeds of adult nerds, the appeal of commercial vehicles to the general public rarely transcends the mundane in the West and on the occasions they are customised there is little chance of the owner risking the dents and scratches of commercial use or letting any of the proletariat getting their greasy paws all over the immaculate bodywork, unless it was a trusted mechanic. For Pakistanis…
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…
The painted buildings of Tirana As joyous as vast expanses of dismal Cold War concrete are it’s nice to make a change once in a while and Tirana, the capital of Albania has certainly put the past behind it with a great splash of colour. Artistically minded mayor, Edi Rama, decided on his election in 2000 that the best way to declare an end to the grim years under dictator Enva Hoxha was to throw a coat of paint or…
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…
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…
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…
