Architectural photographer Cristobal Palma has taken a series of photos revealing the 46 spiralling shopping centres built across Chile in the 1970s and 80s. Known as caracoles, meaning snails, these unusual buildings are believed to have taken inspiration from the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim Museum in New York. According to Palma, the shopping centres are a dying breed. Not only have they struggled to compete with the modern mall, but they have also become symbolic of a turbulent period in the nation's history. He found 26 of these structures found in the capital, plus a further 17 dotted across other Chilean cities. If the mall symbolises the triumph of the neoliberal city propelled by Pinochet's economic reforms, the caracoles seem to represent the final link in an interrupted city that never managed to be reconnected again.
