In Model City Pyongyang, published by Thames & Hudson, Cristiano Bianchi and Kristina Drapic offer the reader an immersion in the heart of the capital of North Korea, to discover its “socialist architecture” and its “grand visions”. Through its buildings, the two Italian architects based in Beijing reveal a city with a strange atmosphere and beauty, between its concrete, its pastel tones, its axes and its symmetry.
On a series of degraded pink skies, the book envisages Pyongyang as a “model city”, built to support a new societal model. The architects immortalized the original character of the city – which had been completely rebuilt after the Korean War – before a “massive renovation program” started in 2012 changed its atmosphere.
Images : © 2019 Cristiano Bianchi
Monument to Party Founding, Axis 1
Electronics Industry Hall
Badminton Hall
Sungri Street “social condensers”
Central Youth Hall
Pyongyang Ice Ring, Chollima Street
Changgwang Health Complex
May Day Stadium, Rungra Island
Mangyongdae Children’s Palace
Mirae Scientists Street
