alt Hacker NewsAzulejos are still a staple in Brazilian architecture. It is a common wall covering in clean areas like bathrooms, kitchens, hospitals.
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This is one of those words that can sound exotic, but for the locals would be so plain and uneventful to hear. Kinda like all the Japanese words being used for software project names on Github.
It is staple but not an art. They're just tilings.
What the Spanish, Moroccan and Portuguese do with azulejos / zellij is miles ahead. It is intricate, complex and beautiful.
Those countries just take the think into crazy high levels of beauty. Brazilian azulejos are not in the same league.
To say that Brazilian azulejos are the same as the Moroccan/Spanish/Portuguese is like saying that a Ferrari Testarosa is the same thing as a VW Beetle (Fusca), that a Fugue by Bach is the same thing as Funk Carioca, that a Crepe Suzette is the same thing as a pancake with orange jelly: technically correct but still absolutely wrong.
[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=zellij+morocco&sxsrf=APpeQns...
[2] https://www.google.com/search?q=azulejo+sevillano&udm=2&sxsr...
What you call azulejos is basically tilings, which are mostly tiles with geometric patterns (or just a color) covering an area. Azulejo, in the "strict" portuguese (of Portugal) sense are usually a painting in the tiles (not on each individual tile, but on the whole). Mostly a work of art, yes..
By the way, there is also another "infrastructure" element that is used as art in Portugal - calçada portuguesa [1], which is also very interesting.
[1] https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cal%C3%A7ada_portuguesa