Pyongyang: A Model City

 A book, Pyongyang: A Model City with a subtitle Architecture of the DPRK Dreaming a Perfect City, was published recently. 

The authors of this book are two architects from Italy and Serbia. The book reads in part:

 It is not easy to answer why we engaged in a cultural project for the DPRK for the first time. We started it with simple curiosity, and then, we found ourselves feeling more and more interested in this unknown subject.

Many people of the world are in agreement with the logic of restraining, rejecting and isolating the DPRK, so they sometimes looked at us with suspicion. 

People often give questions aimed at verifying their prejudices and preconceptions rather than finding out something new. We are still convinced that “isolation” is bad for everyone, and art and architecture, foreign to that warning, can serve as an important means for cultural exchange. We are going to open up a “window” for understanding another’s culture and show another beauty through the architecture of Pyongyang by sharing the experiences of searching and understanding something quite different. 

Pyongyang, seen by the two European architects who visited the DPRK in 2015 for the first time, was a utopia. Articles including those restraining urban planning, guidelines for capacity rate and land price which must be considered when starting construction, were unnecessary in Pyongyang, a city which had been laid out consistently on the basis of a plan. 

They said: 

Pyongyang is the most perfect model city; Korean architecture has a peculiar beauty which cannot be seen elsewhere in the world. If one reads this book, they will feel as if they have looked around all the corners of Pyongyang. However, what is more important is that they can see the appearance of its citizens on photos in the book. It is its another interesting point that they can discover something common.