For the Love of Architecture

This first building is actually in Santa Fe but it got me thinking that one of the things I love most about Argentina, or more specifically Buenos Aires, is the complete mish-mash of architectural styles.  You have a beautiful old building from the 1800´s, and next to it there´s a strange 1970´s thing that was made as a cheap office building.  So these are some buildings that held my attention because they are interesting, beautiful, ugly and unique.

The ugly-pretty

My new thing is taking an interest in things that are not necessarily inherently attractive, and I have dubbed this the "ugly-pretty".  This city is full of ugly alongside pretty; an 18th Century building next to a 1970s tower of apartments, an old abandoned building with doors and windows that have been cemented in to prevent people occupying the building.

These buildings for example; their form, colours and the architecture interests me, but not because it´s pretty, because it´s almost kind of ugly.  I walk past here every day and I love the way the building looks at different times of the day, according to the light.  Here it´s late afternoon, when the sky has a soft glow and you know that darkness is soon coming.

The Glow

It has been raining non-stop for two days now, which I find somehow calming.  It means that there are not as many people on the street; they are either indoors or in buses and taxis, and the city has this glow about it.  It´s just a steady rainfall, that makes it pleasant to put on your boots, grab your umbrella and walk.  In the afternoon when it gets a little darker, the sky just has this glow.  Everything is wet, but the colours seems more vivid and the buildings contrast against the silver-white glow that envelops everything below.