Orelhão: Brazilian Pay Phones

Orelhão: Brazilian Pay Phones - photographs by Louise Chin and Ignacio Aronovich of Lost Art. "...Public use phones in Brazil exist since the 1920s, but the payphones known popularly as 'orelhões' (literally, 'big ears') were created in 1970 by Shanghai-born architect Chu Ming Silveira (1941-1997). Chu Ming was head engineer at CTB (Brasil Telephone Company) and created the first fiberglass design named CHU-1. These classic designs were first presented to the public in Rio and São Paulo in 1972. Since then the design has remained vastly popular, but some touristic destinations in Brazil have created their own designs, some of which are presented on this page. The phones in this small gallery were photographed in: Porto Seguro (Bahia), Bonito (Mato Grosso do Sul), Palmas (Tocantins), Aracaju (Sergipe), Fortaleza (Ceará), and other cities throughout Brazil." More at orelhao.arq.br, site oficial do orelhão e de sua inventora Chu Ming Silveira. (br)