Archinect - News

Oliver Wainwright on the glitzy starchitecture of Astana: "Like a teenager trying to show off"

2017-10-17T14:35:00-04:00

Architects have a thing for strong men, and the big global practices – from Norman Foster to Zaha Hadid – have piled in in a bid to help Kazakhstan’s dictator, Nursultan Nazarbayev, build himself a trophy city

Guardian architecture critic Oliver Wainwright reports from the Astana World Expo grounds as part of the paper's fascinating new series, Secret Stans, which offers a glimpse into the cities of the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

In his piece, Wainwright minces no words and describes the collection of petrodollar-funded starchitecture that Kazakhstan’s lone ruler, Nursultan Nazarbayev, enabled to grow from the Eurasian steppe as a "row of awards in a particularly gaudy trophy cabinet," and also questions the 'regime-enforcing' integrity of well known international architects who agreed to build it.

The dictatorial aesthetic of Donald Trump

2017-03-13T12:17:00-04:00

Trump’s design aesthetic is fascinatingly out of line with America’s past and present. If you doubt it, note that the interiors of the apartments his company actually sells bear no resemblance to the one he lives in. But that doesn’t mean his taste comes from nowhere. At one level, it’s aspirational, meant to project the wealth so many citizens can only dream of. But it also has important parallels...

The best aesthetic descriptor of Trump’s look, I’d argue, is dictator style.

Saddam Hussain's architectural heritage—and what to do with it

2016-09-13T18:30:00-04:00

During his time in power, as head of state and as leader of the all-powerful, secularist Ba’th party, Saddam would oversee an unprecedented program of monumental development across the historic city of Baghdad. This was not limited to monuments of war and hollow bronze shells, but enormous palatial complexes, museums, art galleries, and civic squares [...] marshal it, awkwardly, unevenly, into the post-industrial age, a modern city shaped by the aspirations and egotistical tastes of a despot.

North Korean architect of new Pyongyang airport reportedly executed by Kim Jong Un

2015-06-29T13:31:00-04:00

North Korea's propaganda machine has spent days promoting a new airport in Pyongyang, showcasing the building's sleek glass walls and espresso stations. But the images, which feature Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, fail to mention that the building's principal designer was likely executed last year because Kim was unhappy with the design.

While the starving population of North Korea will likely never going to enjoy the airport's amenities (under the current circumstances), it has shown more direct feedback to other key-interest projects of the supreme despot, like the 46-story Taedong River Apartment Towers which remain unoccupied from floors 20 and up due to frequent power shortages and unreliable elevators.

Lessons from North Korean urbanism, pt. 2

2014-01-10T14:56:00-05:00

I foresee that major urban spaces of Pyongyang, such as Kim Il Sung Square, will be used as “public” space with a greater variety of urban activities, such as commercial activities and show events. [...] The last thing that may happen in North Korea, or the thing that should not happen in some sense, is the Chinese model. Considering the scale of the economy and the potential of the North Korean market compared to China, it is hard to picture radical and massive urban development in Pyongyang.

Part two of NK News' interview with Dongwoo Yim pushes the discussion of North Korean urbanism into the future, comparing potential development methods to those seen in China and South Korea. Focusing on capital Pyongyang, Yim proposes a "Bilbao effect" development strategy that is heavy on catalytic architecture, and soft on strategy -- Pyongyang has very strict development restrictions that keep it from expanding, and will not be remodeling its mass-demonstration public spaces anytime soon.

Yim suggests that those spaces can be relevant in a post-dictatorship North Korea, and that they should be re-appropriated rather than razed for their history. How a hypothetical reunification with South Korea would look depends on how North Korean statehood is interpreted, as either autonomous or an infringement on South Korean land. But the prevailing lesson in Yim's interview is that Pyongyang is not going to be another Seoul, Guangzhou or Shenzhen, and will ultimately have to rely on it...