The Technicolor Desert. A sun-drenched city once ruled by shaky structure, now reinventing itself with metamorphoses in architecture, economy, culture and opportunity. The color here means more than mere façade fodder. It’s a signal of change running deep. Thanks in large part to a new wave of national prosperity, the peoples of Bolivia are relishing in newfound opportunities, replacing depression-era habits with baroque personal pleasures and cultural, economic spice.

All of these flamboyant and exciting changes deserve and demand equally investigative questions. How closely tied is this new architectural wave to the economy of the region, and how do they ebb and flow together? What does it mean to invent a new kind of architecture that is clearly and proudly influenced by longstanding practice? And, perhaps most immediately noticeable, what is the relationship between these pops of color and the Andean culture? Each of these questions can be advanced through an architectural lens in three parts: seeing this living, breathing new architecture as object, process and product.

It may take a nation to drive change on economic and cultural wavelengths, but it often only takes one visionary to start, alter or embody a similar shift. Bolivian architect Freddy Mamani Silvestre exploded through the brickwork to become the premiere Bolivian powerhouse. Humble beginnings as a brick maker laid the foundation, physically and metaphorically, for the visionary to reinvent the fabrics of Bolivia in the name of “New Andean Architecture.”

Bolivia is riding high in a new age of opulence. The country and its people, known for their incredible trade skills and financial conservatism, have been making adjustments in their lives since the boom. These changes can be seen rippling throughout their lives, from new archetypal family spending habits to new architectural style and organization structures. All of these changes stem primarily from economic change, affecting the lives and the architecture of the Mestizaje. How related is this architecture to economy?

A surface study proves immediately engaging: how does the cultural touch affect the object, in both its material and methodology at once? Mamani, interviewed by the Architectural Review, has said so himself: “For the main structure [of] the external and internal decoration, I combined Andean iconography with Tiwanaku geometric motifs.” Analyzing this approach is straightforward and strange—the bold geometric gestures, like the three-dimensional emerald glass outlined in shades of green, very plainly call back to many of the motifs he is mentioning. The invention comes upon the way Mamani assembles, connects, and orders these shapes with the addition of color. The colors themselves fit snugly into the fabric of Bolivian culture, the bright pops reminiscent of traditional dancewear and the latest fashion trends.

A secondary study in the process of these works, or how they are designed and built, reveals further the vibrant and vital connection the architecture has to the city. One of the most immediate aspects of process is the complicated, wide-reaching practice of construction. Construction in El Alto is booming—the rise of the economy and resulting bourgeoisie is constantly creating more jobs, raising the workforce, stimulating the economy, and therefore bettering the quality of life for the everyday Bolivian at large. Constructions of the past were often known to be shaky in principle, but the new wave of intriguing designs has seemed to turn that narrative on its head. Attention has been rightfully brought to the New Andean Architecture, and construction practices have relished in the light and grown with it.

The most directly-tied instance of architectural significance is the architecture as product. Gaston Gallardo, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of San Andres, says as much: “The whole of the social structure is based on commerce. It is not by chance that the Aymara are known as the Phoenicians of the Andes.” Bolivians in commerce, for example, came to wealth upon the revolutionary trade agreements with China. Their old practices of money-saving gave way to new wealth, and new opportunity to indulge in new ways of living. The mayor of Autonomous Principal Government in El Alto, Arq. Edgar Patana, has also illustrated in part what it means to have these large, grandiose buildings being constructed for these people.

“Most of these imposing buildings are crowned on the top floor by family residences. Their splendor is directly related to the financial success of the Andean-Aymara citizen. This kind of collective design reveals a particular cultural fabric, firmly based on communal values, which differs from that of modern western thought.” (Patana 7)

This further illustrates just how connected the Bolivian architectural boom is to its economic one. The old business practices and colorful designs of traditional Mestizaje led recent generations towards incredible trade success. Their well-known trade prowess has reflected itself in the architecture being built now. The colors and grandeur of family homes have been built off the hard work of the people. The economy is in many ways the vessel for such an important and invigorating architectural shift.

It is clear through analysis that the new architecture of Mamani is tied to the old culture and new economics of Bolivia. What does it mean to invent a new kind of architecture that is so influenced by old practice? The specific façades consisting of color corners and wild windows is almost entirely singular from any other prominent style. How do the correlations and differences between the new constructions and old practices affect the object? An answer may be found, or at least stimulated, in the definition itself. Mamani’s architectural aesthetic has garnered for itself its own vocabulary: “cohetillo,” or “spaceship style.” The incredible geometries, and their wild relation to color, affect in a new, alien way. The interiors are grand and large, often with atrium spaces and plentiful, colorful columns. These new forms, as mentioned earlier, are largely derived from a reinvention of local iconography and geometry. Mamani uses bold shapes, reorganizing them in sometimes familiar, sometimes unexpected relationships. The color emphasizes each curve and cut. The scheme as a whole is strengthened by the solidity of each designed part.

The process of creating these structures has much to do with the past. Mamani was critical of the lack of emphasis put on Andean language in architecture schools. He decided to take forms from art, from the curves in ceramics to the forms left over in ruins. In some instances, straightforward forms act as ornament, such as Andean crosses and geometric centerpieces. He repeats, transforms, contrasts and furthermore revitalizes the languages and relationships of the culture he sought to protect and pass on.

The product of these designs—how it relates to the context of the city, its culture, and generations of people; how the people appropriate and assign new meaning (cohetillo); how the architecture itself moves beyond the physical and into the transformative—is impactful beyond measure. Mamani’s designs are remarkably different, and likewise largely panned. He has set off to accomplish something, to preserve traditional and at once embrace change, to effectively usher in an attention to architecture to the region. Mamani does not have to be a registered architect to know how to accomplish these goals, and how much they will mean. The culture he feared was lacking respect has been renewed. The old economic practices are gaining unseen success and ushering in new designs that openly and lovingly reference past principles.

The pops of color find themselves in the middle of it all, both in scale and significance. The analyzation of the smaller scale objects, or each structure and its geometry, revealed the larger scale significance of commerce, culture and economy on the designs of Mamani. The relationship of color and culture is arguably the gateway between each scale and second limb. Color acts as the signifier of each individual work of architecture. It is also a primary cause of the trade agreements with China, the result of which has been prosperity and renovation for all scales and peoples in Bolivia.

The objects Mamani designs are ripe in color, a calling backwards and forwards to the rich history of color in Bolivian culture. From food to dance to the products and packaging that gave them new economy and new life, color has very much to do with the Andeans and their architecture. Color grabs attention, can alter psychology, influence perception, and make a point pop. That is precisely what Mamani did, during and after the Mestizaje had been doing it for many years. Many arguments have been made that the primary reason the mutual trade of fashion, goods and ideas between Bolivia and China has much to do with color. Chinese goods are known for their bright, often playful nature—color and cuteness rule many cultural objects.

The New Andean Architecture can strengthen or revive cultural practices thanks to color. Women are now able to buy colorful, expensive clothes to wear for festivals and dance recitals. The richly-colored fabrics play off of the rich tones in the architecture—the people build on legacy to create the architecture, in turn reviving their legacy. Sometimes culture is borrowed, as some new architecture in Bolivia references typological hierarchy found in China. Trade is what the Mestizaje are known for, and they are proficient at it on every level. It is their lifeblood, both historically, presently, and on into the future. The objects that have been created and traded, thanks largely to color, continue to change and reiterate themselves just as the peoples of El Alto and all of Bolivia have for generations.

Why did Mamani decide to usher in a new age of dynamic color? What was the process behind investigating and interpolating color and culture among the mountains? An immediate reaction is made from the sheer brilliance in the hues—these are emerald greens and deep magentas, mixed and matched and calibrated with complimentary shades emanating from the forms flowing down each surface. It changes the perception of the city of El Alto, through material and context. These are gems rising up and fitting into the context—at once disrupting and glorifying in it. The success of the people allowed the creation of these flamboyant monuments.

The flamboyant nature of the colors—their irregular windows and excessive styles—have led many architects to denounce Mamani’s work. "This style is just the representation of a new economic and political elite,” writes Rim Safar, the president of the Bolivian College of Architects. Mamani insists that the designs glorify in Andean culture, signifying the survival of a methodology he once feared was on its way out. It looks very different, but can be mined for cultural gems calling back to the days before Mamani’s time, where ruins were not ruins and bricklayers like him were still barely making it. The addition of color has radicalized a reimagined design, one that is rooted in history and has managed to insert itself into history. The impacts of the baroque and bourgeoisie can at once strengthen and question such an assertion, but there is no denying its impact on the narrative of the Bolivian people.

Furthermore, the products of these bold new moves can be felt in nearly every direction. Its relation to China’s commerce and culture is robust, and nearby Chile takes notice similarly. “In the Aymara culture we say everything has life. Buildings also have to produce wealth, they cannot be white elephants… need to generate money,” says Gallardo in the aforementioned interview. The family living on the uppermost floors got there by working, and can sustain themselves atop their emerald home by continuing to capitalize on color. The architecture itself is ordinary by abstraction and singular in realization, transforming the traditional into a New Andean vision for the family it has known for generations.

The New Andean finds itself in a peculiar place. It stands among the mountains, nestled in a culture of trade and festivity, reaching towards the future with a hand acknowledging the past. It is criticized my many, rightfully questioned in the vein of the baroque, and nevertheless continuing to catch fire among the proud peoples of Bolivia. The indigenous population has been rising thanks to its history, culture, and color. All three elements live and breathe as objects, processes, and products that touch the ground at home and make their way gliding across oceans to worlds and cultures lives away. Freddy Mamani believed in the history he saw, and sought to preserve it by pushing ahead towards a new one.

“My work seeks to provide an identity to my city,” he says. "The Aymara culture has finally reclaimed its role in this country." With cultures visible through color, and an economy peeking over a skyline of new cohetillo construction, The Technicolor Desert is here. And it is home.

A special thank you to Professor Gabriel Cristian Terreno, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba

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