Check out these cheerful candy-colored buildings! Murals are a fantastic way to sugar-coat concrete and brighten up otherwise drab buildings. Artists Haas and Hahn have adorned several concrete landscapes in Brazil with their colorful paintings, and now they’ve taken on the transformation of a blighted favela neighborhood. The area, Santa Marta, is one of Brazil’s notorious favelas, or shantytowns. They call this urban explosion of color Favela Painting, and it has become a local source of pride.

There are hundreds of favelas in Brazil, a casualty of the country’s extreme economic inequality. Favelas aren’t built to any kind of code or safety standards — they’re simply a means for the poorest populations to house themselves. To cover the blighted buildings in swaths of color, Favela Painting employs local residents, training them in professional painting techniques and safety. The powerful stripes cover only a portion of the larger hillside neighborhood; the artists hope to continue the artwork over the entire favela. Remarkably, the whole thing is funded by individual and private donations — as if the candy stripes weren’t enough to make you smile already.

+ Favela Painting

Via The Coolist