Pyongyang Apt to go on display at architecture exhibition
By Kim Se-jeong
Like Seoul, Pyongyang’s skyline is marked with apartments.
What their interior looks like is anyone’s guess, but the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism which will open on Sept. 2 might give people an idea.
Three rooms featuring apartments of Pyongyang will be exhibited at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza until Nov. 15.
“People can learn about materials used in the construction and other details, and get a broader sense of urbanism in Pyongyang,” a biennale representative said. “But it will be a reinterpretation, not a replica. There are people who studied Pyongyang’s urban architecture and who’ve seen the apartments with their own eyes. We referenced books and papers they wrote and their accounts.”
Besides Pyongyang, 50 other cities will be featured during the exhibition.
The biennale will take place on the sidelines of the International Union of Architects (UIA) congress, held every three years.
The one-week congress will open Sept. 3 across Seoul, peppered with more than 100 public exhibitions, seminars and lectures by renowned architects, architecture tours in Seoul and a film festival.
Kengo Kuma, chief architect for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Stadium, is among the renowned architects who will visit Seoul for the congress. Other visiting architects include Winy Maas, the Dutch architect who designed Seoullo 7017, an overpass-turned-urban garden near Seoul Station; Dominique Perrault, the French architect who made the signature Ewha Campus Complex at Ewha Womans University in Seoul; and Billie Tsien and Tod Williams, the main architects for the Barack Obama Presidential Center which is in the making in Chicago.
“It is a significant event for the architectural history of Seoul and Korea,” the host city government said in a statement. “Almost 30,000 are expected to visit Seoul during this time. We hope visitors will enjoy Seoul’s urban architecture during their stay.”
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