Neo-Andean

Neo-Andean is a contemporary architectural movement primarily situated in El Alto, Bolivia, expressed in the city's many cholets, or mini-mansions, and dancehalls.^[1] Bolivian architect Freddy Mamani has been described as "the best-known architect" of neo-Andean architecture. Mamani is "a civil engineer who began as a simple laborer two decades ago" and has built over 60 neo-Andean structures in El Alto since 2005.^[2][3]

Architecture historian Elisabetta Andreoli described the style, represented in over 100 structures across the El Alto skyline, as neo-Andean. Paola Flores noted that "most [of the neo-Andean structures] have been built since President Evo Morales, an Aymara who is the country's first indigenous leader, took office in 2006. Their emergence coincides with a modest economic boom coupled with a rise in Aymara pride."^[2] They also coincided with the rapid development and modernization of El Alto, a traditionally low-income area with many unpaved roads and improvised structures.

The bulk of the buildings in El Alto are simple, unadorned brick structures; Neo-Andean structures are typically similar in underlying structure, but with the addition of very elaborate decorative facades. Many older buildings around El Alto have been renovated with neo-Andean style facades since the style became popular.

The term was first used in an architectural journal to reference the style of the United States Embassy building in Lima, Peru by Arquitectonica in 1996; it said that the embassy's architect "quite literally took inspiration from Peruvian history, modelling the base of the building on the structures of the ancient cities of Cuzco and Machu Picchu."^[4]