Architects around the world strive to incorporate regional design histories into contemporary work, but Bolivian designer Freddy Mamani Silvestre takes it a step further, blending pop culture inspirations into his fantastically bizarre buildings.

Mamani is an Aymara, part of a people who were historically conquered and displaced by Incan and Spanish populations.He trained as an engineer, then grew into fame designing mixed-use mansions for the rich (generally: stores on the ground floor, apartments above and a penthouse for owners).

“Mamani’s architecture incorporates circular motifs from Aymara weaving and ceramics and the neon colors of Aymara dress,” reports the New Yorker, “and it alludes to the staggered planes of Andean temples.” It also is inspired by cyberpunk visions and science fiction films like Transformers.

Creative, eccentric, joyful, imaginative are all words that have been used to describe his work, though some see it extreme, superficial, garish or gaudy as well. It can be polarizing, with fans praising his audacity and critics decrying the lack of formal method to the apparent madness.

Silvestre works in unusual ways as well, sketching ideas onto walls or simply describing what he wants to coworkers, leaving them to execute the details. He has completed a number of projects in this way in El Alto, the highest city in the world.

Photographer Oliver Curtis turns his back on some of the world’s most famous monuments, capturing a wholly unexpected side to these familiar cultural icons.

If life is a journey and not a destination (to quote Ralph Waldo Emerson), then the ideal photographer to document the trip would be Oliver Curtis. In his Royal Geographical Society exhibition aptly titled “Volte-face”, Curtis visits the world’s most famous monuments and evocative locations… and then turns 180-degrees, snapping the polar opposite of what visitors have come from across the globe to see! The results are often enlightening in their own right, as the above views from the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall in Beijing, China’s Tiananmen Square and the Great Wall of China at Mutianyu illustrate.

American Dreaming

Curtis’ odd odyssey unfolded over a period of four years and involved a staggering amount of travel – one would hope he’d enrolled in a frequent flyer program beforehand. From start to finish, however, Curtis never lost sight of his mission “to send our gaze elsewhere and to favor the incidental over the monumental.” The photo above, taken at the White House on a perfect summer’s day, epitomizes his curious yet enlightening vision quest.

Let My People Golf

Curtis was inspired to record “counter-views” of the world’s most-photographed places in 2012, while visiting the Pyramids of Giza. Finding an ideal spot to capture the Great Pyramid of Khufu – the largest of the three main pyramids – Curtis glanced back in the direction from which he had came… and one might say he never looked back, er, sort of. “Immediately in front of me and under my feet,” explains Curtis, “the sand of the desert was adorned with an assortment of human detritus; litter, pieces of rusted metal, a large rubber washer and a torn hessian sack. Then, in the mid-distance I saw a newly constructed golf course, its fairways an intense green under the late morning sun.”

Acropolis Now

“I found this visual sandwich of contrasting colour, texture and form intriguing not simply for the photograph it made but also because of the oddness of my position;” adds Curtis, “standing at one of the great wonders of the world facing the ‘wrong’ way.” Though the locations may differ (that’s the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, above), Curtis’ photographic subjects evoke certain similarities due to they’re being cheek-by-jowl to greatness. Take the white stone bench in the image above: if you didn’t know it shared real estate with one of the world’s most iconic structures, it would seem perfectly at home in most any suburban garden.

Kodak Moment

In a world too-often suffused with the profane, these photographs provide a refreshing atmosphere of the mundane by being the antitheses of the associated famous construction. This works on a number of levels: no doubt Lenin would spin in his tomb if he knew a Kodak kiosk was conducting capitalism just outside!

The Rio Thing

Far from being overshadowed or perhaps because of it, these images display a subtle narrative all their own. Indeed, these reverse-views spotlight actual locales where workers and random folks display a palpable lack of awe; the consequence of daily exposure (or over-exposure, more likely) to what the rest of the world has put on a pedestal. Speaking of which, the trio above appear oblivious to Rio de Janeiro’s enormous Christ the Redeemer statue looming over them.

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Turn On Backwards Glances From Famous Monuments

Maybe it’s a little weird to stare at oversized images of whipped cream and cherries plastered onto the wall while you’re relieving yourself, but hey, at least it’s not the other way around. The Toilennale festival in Oita, Japan attempted to elevate public restroom facilities into cultural experiences by transforming them into art installations or holding events like poetry readings inside.

This particular installation, entitled ‘Melting Dream,’ looks like a gigantic cake – or perhaps an ice cream sundae – from outside (perhaps inspired by actual urinal cakes). Step inside and you’ll be confronted with murals of various sweet treats alongside cherry-red floors. Set adjacent to urinals mounted a wall, suddenly a sugary glaze dripping down fruit takes on a more ambiguous meaning.

If you’re feeling a little disconcerted by this combination of human biological urges, that’s the point. Artist Minako Nishiyama notes that the people of Japan are going about their daily lives as if nothing changed after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. “The concept of the piece is that Japan, the sweet country of ambiguity, is beginning to crumble.”

15 other public restroom transformations included ‘gonzo performance,’ private poetry readings inside stalls, a celebration of toilet graffiti and “an odd recital given by the ‘Zombie,’ an automatic performance machine that plays the recorder.” The facilities remained open for their usual purpose throughout the festival, which opened in July and ran through September 23rd. The next Toilennale is scheduled for 2017.

Even if you’re sick of the surface-level, tourist-friendly version of New York City, there are still many sights to be seen, including fun little secret installations right under your nose in busy places like Grand Central Terminal and subway platforms. These 10 unexpected and little-known attractions in the New York City area include a tiny gallery in an elevator shaft, a slice of punk history, an actual piece of Berlin and a scenic tram ride straight to a stunning abandoned hospital on an island in the East River.

Whispering Gallery, Grand Central Terminal

If you see someone with their face in a corner and their lips nearly touching the walls in the middle of Grand Central Terminal, don’t worry – they’re not acting out the last scene of Blair Witch Project. They’re just whispering. The ‘Whispering Gallery’ is an unofficial attraction created by the acoustic properties of the ceiling between two diagonal corners between the archways. Whisper, and the person standing at the opposite end can hear what you’re saying as if you’re talking into a megaphone. Have a friend stand on the other side, or just freak out random passersby, as seen in the video above. It’s located just outside the Oyster Bar.

Pedestrian Shortcut with Waterfall View

Like something out of Harry Potter, a street marked 6 1/2 Ave offers a semi-secret shortcut from 51st to 57th, and it’s only open to pedestrians. Take a break from screaming cabbies as you stroll (or whatever the New York City version of strolling would be called) down a slightly-slowed-down path through Midtown Manhattan, adjacent to the beautiful 20-foot waterfall in Paley Park. There’s another waterfall at Midtown East’s Greenacre Park at 217 East 51st St., as well as the five located within Central Park.

Remnants of the Berlin Wall

Speaking of Paley Park, this little pocket recreation space in the heart of Midtown at 3 East 53rd also boasts five sections of the Berlin Wall, originally located along the Waldemarstrasse and decorated by German artists Thierry Noir and Kiddy Citny in 1985.

C-Squat: Punk History in the East Village

A little bit of New York City’s legendary punk heritage can still be found at 155 Avenue C, nicknamed C-Squat. Squatters claimed the abandoned space in the ‘80s, rebuilding it to make it habitable, and started throwing punk shows in the basement in the ‘90s. The city hammered out an agreement with the long-term residents, allowing them to stay as long as they bring it up to code, so it will soon officially pass into the hands of a bunch of artists and musicians. The walls are still covered in decades’ worth of graffiti and murals. One of the last holdouts of old school punk culture in the city, it’s still used as a location for underground parties.

Musical Subway Installation

An unassuming pair of green metal bars blend into the walls of New York City’s 34th Street Subway Station, but pay closer attention and you’ll notice a sign alerting transit riders to an installation called REACH: New York. Created by Christopher Janney in 1995, this weird interactive exhibit features speakers embedded with motion sensors so that when you place your hand in front of one of the holes in the bars, you’ll trigger a sound. Move from one sensor to another to compose your own musical sequence. The artist changes out the sounds every year.

Roosevelt Island Smallpox Hospital

Patients infected with smallpox, leprosy and other highly infectious diseases were once kept quarantined in a hospital on New York City’s Roosevelt Island, which treated about 7,000 people per year between 1856 and 1875. It was abandoned altogether by the 1950s and fell into disrepair before the Landmark Preservation Commission declared it an important part of the city’s heritage, reinforcing the walls. The island has also been home to insane asylums and prisons, and is now a great place to take a riverside walk and get a nice view of the Upper East Side. For the swipe of a MetroCard, you can take a scenic tram to gaze up at the hospital facades, check out a lighthouse and view some public art.

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Nyc Secrets 10 Hidden Sights In The City That Never Sleeps

From a mile-long strip of land packed with over one million corpses just off the shores of New York City to a floating fortress in England used by a developer to escape his creditors, these 7 islands are among the world’s strangest. While the exact histories of some can only be speculated upon, like Japan’s formerly top-secret chemical weapons facility and Mexico’s wildly creepy Island of the Dolls,  each of these mysterious islands has a fascinating story to share.

Poison Gas Island Now Overrun with Rabbits

Suspecting that the United States and Europe were producing chemical weapons despite signing the Geneva Protocol banning chemical warfare in 1925, Japan decided to move forward with developing some of its own, claiming a tiny isolated island that they subsequently removed from maps. Workers at the chemical weapon facility producing mustard gas and tear gas weren’t even clued in to what they were creating, and many of them suffered from toxic-exposure related illnesses. When the Russo-Japanese war ended in 1929, documents relating to the plant were destroyed, and the gas was dumped or buried.

Today, the island is home to the Okunoshima Poison Gas Museum – but that’s not what draws most of the tourists who visit the island, which is now part of the Inland Sea National Park system of Japan. It’s the thousands of rabbits that have multiplied there, leading to the nickname ‘Rabbit Island.’ Some people speculate that these rabbits are the descendants of animal testing subjects that were let loose after World War II, but as the rabbits have few natural predators to fear on the island and hunting them is forbidden, it may just be a case of stereotypical rabbit reproduction rates.

North Brother Island, New York

Visible to anyone who cares to notice from the windows of airplanes landing at LaGuardia Airport, the creepy abandoned North Brother Island is nonetheless unknown to most New Yorkers. The dilapidated remains of brick structures can be spotted through a tangle of vines in the overgrown forest that has sprouted around them since they were left to decay a half-century ago. The island was established as a New York City quarantine hospital in 1885, and was home to the infamous Typhoid Mary, the first American identified as a carrier of typhoid fever. Later, the island became a rehab center for teenage drug addicts before it was decommissioned in 1963. Invasive kudzu vines soon took over. Due to its proximity to Rikers and the fragility of its structures, the island is permanently closed to the public, but occasional visitors still get in. These incredible images were taken by photographer Christopher Payne for his book, North Brother Island: The Last Unknown Place in New York City.

New York Island is a Cemetery for Unknown Individuals

As beautiful and creepy as North Brother Island may be, it’s hardly the only isolated island with a sad story that can be found within a stone’s throw of America’s most populated city. Located in the Long Island Sound, Hart Island was used as a Civil War prison camp, with 235 prisoners dying there. Later, the island became the setting of a hospital, a women’s insane asylum, a tubercularium and a corrections facility for boys. But unlike many islands with such a past, this one has not been converted into a memorial, nor has it been entirely left to ruin: it is the final resting place of the city’s unknown or unclaimed dead. Used as New York’s Potter’s Field, the mile-long island holds the remains of more than one million individuals, with about 1,500 bodies (and many more amputated body parts) buried there each year. The historic buildings on the island are being torn down to make room for additional burials, which are conducted by Rikers Island inmates.

Isla de las Munecas: Mexico’s Creepy Doll Island

The eyes of decapitated dolls blink lazily from their perches in the trees on Mexico’s Isla de las Munecas – ‘Island of the Dolls.’ There’s something undeniably terrifying about seeing what look like naked infants – sometimes remarkably realistic – clinging to the branches or dangling from their necks. Legend has it that after a little girl drowned in Teshuilo Lake, island resident Don Julian Santana began collecting dolls and installing them in the trees. Eventually, their numbers grew into the hundreds. Santana often sourced the dolls from the trash or traded produce for them, taking them in any condition, no matter how dirty or worn. While many people viewed the doll-infested island as something out of a nightmare, to him it was a shrine. Tragically, in 2001, Santana was discovered drowned in the same area of the lake where he believed the little girl had perished.

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Forbidden Islands Part I 7 Isolated And Abandoned Wonders