Archinect - News

North Korea breaks ground on the next phase of its 50,000-unit development plan

2022-02-28T11:12:00-05:00

North Korea has started work on a sprawling 10,000-apartment residential project as the country embarks on a housing drive in its capital, Pyongyang. Though few design details have been disclosed, digital renderings of the development show towers rising on both sides of a leafy boulevard in an area of the capital called Hwasong. A larger skyscraper, which appears to be at least 40 stories tall, is also depicted in the plans.

North Korea says it is on track to develop some 50,000 new residences in the capital in phases within the next 2-3 years. The rogue state has faced considerable housing shortages in the past and now looks to rebound from two years of economically-stifled developmental setbacks to create a "new world of a prosperous power where the people enjoy the highest dignity and the best happiness."

Much of Pyongyang’s transformation into a “socialist fairyland” stems in large part from plans put forth in a 2016 directive from leader Kim Jung Un and developed mostly anonymously and at “Pyongyang Speed” by the Paektusan Academy of Architecture. The primacy of the construction push is being further underscored by the incorporation of laborers taken from the state’s various military academies, which are being leaned on for the first time in an attempt to overcome supply chain issues related to economic sanctions and a marked decline in trade with China.

North Korea's Kim Jong Un renews call for rapid housing construction

2021-04-06T20:15:00-04:00

Strict supervision over every construction process must be exercised, building materials economized in every way with high demand, accidents of all kinds prevented and excellent construction experience introduced...

Looks like bombs aren't the only things Kim Jong Un is building. And, aren't we more dynamite-centric on the subject matter?

Now that they have the know-how...

We will need to remember something we have *forgotten.

*Public housing.

North Korea dreams of an international tourist resort — at its missile launch site

2017-10-11T15:53:00-04:00

While headlines are dominated by escalating hostility between North Korea and the US, it has emerged that the Democratic People’s Republic has recently hatched plans to lure international tourists to a swanky new resort. The isolated regime of Kim Jong-un wants to turn the east coast city of Wonsan into “the Pearl of the East” to boost tourism, and hopes to attract $1.5bn in international investment for hotels, offices, apartments and an exhibition centre.

A different kind of logic applies to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's planning strategy of turning the seaside city, and summer retreat, of Wonsan into a hot spot of international tourism — with luxury hotels, golf courses, sand beaches — AND maintain it as frequent launch site for the regime's (potentially nuclear warhead-carrying) missile arsenal.

Surge in bomb shelter sales as tensions with North Korea increase

2017-08-11T15:24:00-04:00

As tensions with North Korea flare in light of the news that they may have successfully produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles, everyone is scrambling to determine how seriously to take them.

Back in May, when North Korea began testing nuclear weapons with growing sophistication, Japan—vulnerable due to its proximity to North Korea and the fact that it hosts a number of U.S. military bases—saw a huge uptick in price inquiries on private nuclear shelters.

Tropical island-themed nuclear shelter in Japan

Now that the U.S. President has threatened the communist country "with fire and fury like the world has never seen" and Kim Jong-Un has shot back with threats of an attack on Guam, we are seeing a similar increase as those in areas like Guam or California that are at high-risk of being effected in the event of an attack look into extreme safety measures.

Bomb shelter on display, by Atlas Survival Shelters

In California, one company, Atlas Survival Shel...

Another speedy “Pyonghattan” skyscraper project is underway

2016-06-29T14:55:00-04:00

Hoping to show the world his country is doing just fine despite sanctions and outside pressure over its nuclear weapons program, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has put his soldier-builders to work on yet another major [skyscraper] project Pyongyang’s new Pyonghattan, officially called “Ryomyong Street,” is to have the country’s tallest apartment building, at 70 stories, along with a 50-story building and a handful of smaller ones in the 30-40 story range.

“[Kim's] soldier-builders are now putting up the frames for each new floor at the reportedly breakneck-pace of 14 hours to get it all done by the end of the year.”

‘Pyongyang Speed:’ North Korea miraculously cranks out massive residential development for scientists in only one year

2015-12-18T13:46:00-05:00

North Korea held a ceremony on Tuesday to celebrate Mirae Scientists Street, the residential sector dedicated for scientists or engineers of North Korea. Mirae (“Future”) Scientists Street, located in the center of Pyongyang, directly next to Pyongyang Station adjacent to the Taedong River, is nearing completion. [...] Wednesday’s report emphasized the term “Pyongyang Speed,” the idea that North Korean workers can produce miraculously fast construction speeds.

"KCNA reports revealed that one of the buildings is 53 floors high, designed with an artistic exterior and guided under Kim Jong Un’s orders. The street also had a kindergarten, daycare center, school, stores, sports park and more, according to KCNA."

h/t CTBUH

Pyongyang's inner Wes Anderson shines through in its architecture, then and now

2015-11-03T13:24:00-05:00

'Let us turn the whole country into a socialist fairyland,'...Throughout the city, you now encounter the recurring colour schemes of salmon and teal, or pink and baby blue...These new spaces look like they have been assembled from crisp, unreal planes of colour and exude an anaesthetising aesthetic, candy-coloured decoys that distract from a reality of mass poverty across the country.

Pyonghattan & water parks: North Korea's new architectural ambitions

2015-09-14T13:35:00-04:00

“Let us usher in a great golden age of construction,” exhorts one of the 310 official patriotic slogans published this year. The ambition is already evident in the number of cranes that dot the skyline [...]. The most prominent structures are the 47-storey shafts of the Changjon Street apartments, an 18-tower complex completed last year in less than 12 months and nicknamed “Pyonghattan” by foreign diplomats. But other emerging skyscrapers go undiscussed and unphotographed [...].

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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.

North Koreans hesitate to move into Kim Jong Un's shiny, new apartment towers

2015-06-03T15:39:00-04:00

Despite seeing completion last October, following orders from leader Kim Jong Un, only half of the units of a major apartment complex built near Pyongyang’s Taedong River are currently occupied. [...] “The elevator runs only during breakfast, lunch, and dinner hours, so for long spans of time it will be impossible to get to the 40th floor,” the source said. “There isn’t even a place for people to put their bicycles, which are the most fundamental tools for people’s livelihoods.”