Transforming Taipei

Occasionally, you accidentally run into some little feature of a city that just makes you smile. Not a huge museum, shopping arcade or significant piece of architecture, but just a tiny piece of the urban fabric that's unique and inspired.

Someone in Taipei got the brilliant idea to paint all the ugly transformer boxes. The general theme is nature, heavy on blue sky. They're everywhere, brightening up block after block of the city. The boxes are hand painted and have the look of street folk art but they're well done and in good condition, a tip that the metal murals must be sanctioned and supported by the municipal electric company and government. Kudos to the people that pushed the green light on the project!

A typical transformer box.

See how a little paint can improve the area, even situated next to a trashcan? The hand-painted details.

Looking like regal sentries at an alley entrance.

Many times you'll run across a pair of boxes. No matter, just continue the scene across both of them. A transformer diptych?

Whoa, Daddy! What to do with a six boxer? Go wide with a landscape beach scene.

Flowers riding a bicycle. See how lush the box looks near real flora?

A final look, showing how great a fit the painted transformer boxes are in the urban jungle.