Years later, when she became a practicing architect, her experiences inspired her to create the Biotope Boutique House, a natural refuge within the sprawling city. I learned about the Biotope by coincidence, after renting an Airbnb from Tellez in the central neighborhood of Sopocachi. Architect Lindsay Tellez created the Biotope Boutique House as a prototype for sustainable urban living in Bolivia. The Biotope Boutique House features a unique vertical greenhouse and water conservation system based on the natural filtration of totora reeds from nearby Lake Titicaca. The Biotope was completed at a time when Bolivia’s upper class started creating identity through radical, sometimes controversial forms of architecture.