Spending 15 days in Uruguay was amazing. The pace of life made it feel like a month, and it was a challenge to return to work after 26 hours in transit. Vacations are great for recharging the energy stores. Not only that, but when you’re lucky enough to visit a different culture you can find inspiration in many places. I have too many pictures to share (over 700) but I have selected a few to summarize Uruguay and the sort of design inspiration that can be drawn from my trip.

The country is very European. There are no indigenous people left, meaning Uruguayans are dependents of European settlers. A lot of the architecture is influenced as you may expect. Below is a picture of a historic building in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay.

I spent most of my time in and around Punta del Este (East Point) which is a popular summer vacation spot for South Americans and Europeans. There are a plethora of summer homes to rent and equally as much variety in their design.

This is one of the many modern summer homes, this one pretty much at the end of the spectrum. The below is a more traditional summer home, that you see in the residential areas of Punta del Este. It has a thatch roof that is over 1 foot thick. My father-in-law tells me they can last 25 to 30 years when properly maintained.

The below bridge is in La Barra, an expensive beach area where models are scouted. An engineer by the name of Leonel Viera constructed this (date unknown). Originally it was just one bridge, but has since been expanded for two way traffic.

The Monumento al Ahogado in Punta del Este was made in 1982 by a Chilean artist, Mario Irarrázabal. Referred to as La Mano (The Hand) it is of a hand drowning, as a warning to swimmers.

Casapueblo was built by a Uruguayn artist, Carlos Páez Vilaró, as an homage to his son, who was one of the 16 survivors of a plane crash in the Andes, which inspired the movie Alive in 1993. It is now a museum, art gallery and hotel. Though it is Mediterranean in style the artist often referred to a bird of Uruguay when discussing the construction.

And finally is a little street art from Montevideo. There wasn’t a lot of grafiti around, at least not the type where artists spend a lot of time making something. The typical grafiti is political in nature and is usually very direct.

Uruguay has some contrasting elements. A lot of the architecture is European, traditional and intricate, while the people often prefer simplicity. The population is just over 3 million, and about half of that lives in the capital. The rural parts are very rural, with enormous ranches and wide open terrain, where the gauchos (cowboys) live. It is a bit of a melting pot of backgrounds, with ancestors from England, France, Spain Poland and other parts of Europe.