Concrete silos undergoing a colourful transformation

Photo by Steve Chou (Flickr)

A couple of weeks ago I was walking with my kid through Granville Island – A fascinating corner of Vancouver that includes a big public market, artists’ and artisans’ studios, our local art and design university, and a couple of surprising little pockets of industrial stuff. The most noteworthy and visible evidence of the area’s industrial past is a concrete factory, which has six towering gray silos marking the skyline.

My kid and I were delighted to see that those silos are undergoing a transformation on a massive scale – they are being painted in bright, gorgeous colours by a pair of Brazilian artists, twin brothers who go by the collective name OSGEMEOS.

These artists are turning what was a rather bleak and imposing landmark into a cheerful, inspiring, and welcoming one.

So, inspired by OSGEMEOS’s simple yet radical makeover of a formerly blah structure, here is your curiosity experiment for this week:

  • What structures in your life are ripe for a colourful transformation?
  • How could you take something that currently feels imposing, dreary, or purely functional and infuse it with life?
  • What “wonder twins” could you enlist to support you in this makeover?