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Book Review Edifying Korea

MICHAL BONCZA hopes a new book showcasing contemporary architecture of North Korea will help allay some of the more persistent negative perceptions of the country

Inside North Korea
by Oliver Wainwright
(Taschen £40)

In uncultured or indolent observers North Korea, the West’s favourite bogeyman, induces a negative, Pavlovian knee-jerk response entirely US-manufactured and based on the teachings of Joseph Goebbels.

Just so we are clear, during the 1950-53 bombing campaign of Korea the US air force used high explosive, incendiary and napalm bombs to destroy an estimated 85 per cent of practically all the country's cities and towns — Pyongyang was flattened — civilian deaths totalled one million.

In the follow-up, the country has been criminally and ruinously blockaded far longer than Cuba and had to resort, understandably, to the ingenuity of its people to survive and, in many aspects, thrive.

Not that there was any generally sympathetic photographic evidence of said efforts to rebuild the country creatively, relying entirely on the Juche (self-sufficiency) principle. Well, not until now.

Architecture critic Oliver Wainwright went to have a look and, credit to him, he discloses much that is rather… edifying.

The most salient and unexpected image in the whole book is that of a Pyongyang panoramic view from the Tower of the Juche Idea. It captivates the imagination with the flood-like proliferation of soothing pastel colours from warm pale oranges, yellows and pinks to aquamarine and celeste all used to colour housing blocks.

Dotted around this cityscape are buildings that fascinate with their adventurous shapes and complex engineering employed to achieve this. The world’s largest 114,000-seater May Day Stadium crouches like a gigantic marine shell, the dagger-like, 105-storey pyramidal Ryugyong Hotel reminiscent of the London Shard punctures the sky and is visible from miles out. The Pyongyang Ice Rink, inspired by Frederick Gibberd’s Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, is a touching and sincere compliment.

The Arch of Triumph, built to commemorate the 1925-45 Korean war of independence against Japan, offers an exquisite reinvention of that ancient Roman tribute to victorious campaigns. Related to the Arch of Titus in Rome it features “eastern” architectural detail and is crowned with a derivative of a pagoda-overhung roof.

It is the second tallest triumphal arch in the world, after art nouveau Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City.

And then there are the underground stations that, whether decorated with floral or political motifs, are perplexingly beautiful and engender positivity (you can see them by clicking on the link in the online version of this article). www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2018/jul/27/pyongyangs-stunning-subwa...

Paektusan Academy of Architecture is the principal state architecture office, where all the major projects are designed and, in a rather refreshing departure from Western demented adoration of “starchitects,” presented as a collective effort.

Last April, at the opening ceremony for a newly constructed housing complex in Ryomyong Street in Pyongyang, North Korea’s premier Pak Pong Ju said poignantly that this was “a very significant, great event, more powerful than the explosion of hundreds of nuclear bombs on the top of the enemies’ heads.”

It might be easy to respond with bigoted cynicism but it would be unwise and, more importantly, disrespectful to the million dead of 1953 and the Republic of North Korea sincere desire for lasting peace.

Wainwright put his head above the parapet and for that alone he earned our gratitude.

 

 

 

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