Azulejo

I live in a world where most physical structures look the way they do for the sake of efficiency, whether that’s saving time or money for the sake of profit and productivity. But beautiful things aren’t efficient. And so many parts of the world have great examples. The ornate temples of Thailand and Myanmar. The handpainted fileteados of Argentina. The tesselations of Islamic temples.

Portugal’s azulejo tiles are iconic. I love the way that they appear on all kinds of buildings. Old churches. Humble housing complexes. There’s no requirement for the building to be of grand importance for it to get the detailed, artistic treatment. It simply needs to be important to whoever owns it or uses it, and the artist.