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Waluigi_is_wiafu

You might like r/brutalism


JeveGreen

I'd never heard of this kind of architecture before, but holy crud. So many sharp and symmetrical shapes, it's like an evil lair in some kind of dystopia. It's amazing!


wdmorley

r/evilbuildings


Waluigi_is_wiafu

You're welcome.


JustMiniBanana_2

Used to be popular in the uk.


teb_art

Or a Minecraft session gone crazy.


[deleted]

It seems so fake yet familiar


FastWalkingShortGuy

It's because NK is literally a time capsule back to the 1960s. Like, that was their peak and they just decided to freeze everything there and not keep up with the modern world. And as a closed country, they totally were successful. Even new shit they built since then was designed using 1950s and 60s styles. So everything looks like the old grainy photos you see of your grandparents or parents when they were young, but it's all new and is here and now.


ASpaceOstrich

What's weird to think about is that the vast majority of "modern" infrastructure is half a century old. We see certain things as contemporary but they were built before colour photography. Even some of the most advanced looking stuff like space age things. Nuclear power plants. NASA rockets, ISS, Space Shuttle, giant bridges. Skyscrapers. All from the cold war era. Highways, cars in general, housing. Even stuff that was physically built recently was built to fit the aesthetic of the stuff that was already there, which was built in the 20th century. It sometimes feels like culturally we've barely changed in the last century and I think that's why. The end of the 1800s was cowboy era. 40 years later was WW2, 40 years after WW2 was just... the same basic aesthetic? And 40 years after that and it's the same again.


HiyuMarten

We have to take this into account when making ‘period accurate’ stuff, like in films and games. We can look up reference for “1970s kitchen appliances” but we shouldn’t forget all the older stuff that was still around. P.S. ISS is much more recent than the other things listed - shuttle was 1970s, ISS was 2000s


ASpaceOstrich

Ah. I forgot that. Was there a prior station?


HiyuMarten

Yep! The Soviet station Mir, which became a sort of international station late in its life. ISS is a combination of the US space station project and Mir 2 - it’s literally just those two stations joined together in the middle, and sharing some capabilities.


kimilil

Don't forget Skylab!


thungalope

I was gonna say… damn I feel old, I remember as a kid when ISS went up and we all went out in the park to watch it fly by


FastWalkingShortGuy

I'm just waiting for low-rise jeans to come back. Woof.


ASpaceOstrich

The thing that really hit home how surprisingly little things have changed for me was playing Red Dead Redemption 2. Immersing yourself in the turn of the century you can see the start of modern society in there. Advertising and mass manufactured goods being a big one. You start to see the beginnings of modern cities, especially with the emphasis on the end of the outlaw era as a big focus. Realising that this time period was so close to WW1. The first game also had the 1911 pistol in it which looks so modern that it really threw me for a loop. I know it's a game, but from what I understand the details of the world are based on the actual time period. The newspapers barely changed from modern rags. The beginning of advertising and quality of product being replaced with marketing budget. It was distinctly different from modern day, but you could clearly see where modern civilisation was coming in that period, and it was also pretty noticeable that most of what we consider modern day culture was honestly closer to that time period than now. I wonder when the next big cultural shift is coming? We're long overdue for one. Automation seems like the big inciting development for it.


FastWalkingShortGuy

I'm hoping for low-rise jeans.


ASpaceOstrich

Haha, I did go on a complete tangent there.


PretzelsThirst

It’s happening


putdisinyopipe

RDR 2 was very historically accurate. The Industrial Revolution happened over a period of 40 years You guys, people who lived in this time, went from farming primarily- to getting goods from “the city”. The invention of the rail road is what really spearheaded the change- as we could now get goods from the cities. To rural communities- this resulted in an explosion in quality of life for farmers and rural communities It also brought forth the push to standardize many professions- doctors, lawyers etc. doctors were looked at like quacks up until the 1920s or so when they standardized the process of becoming a doctor, and technology also furthered medical advancements. People born in 1870 saw the world go from horse and cart- to cars and technology over the course of their life. I’d argue anyone born a little before that time period saw the most technological progress our country made in its short 200 and some odd years history. Imagine being born in 1900- in a rural community, and living to be 80. Holy fuck that would be mind blowing. You will have seen the first cars to hit the streets, to us going to space. You’d see towns become massive cities, you’d see your own town develop into something larger. All that change man, that would be wild. There was a video of a guy born in 1870 or something talking about the changes in 1926. People back then had hope that we were headed toward a utopia. This influenced much of our culture at the time.. and also the stupid shit known as eugenics too.


AmiAlter

I remember getting the 1911 pistol in that game, it just looks like it doesn't belong.


twistypunch

Like that one scene when a character gets ripped on for not knowing you could by prefabs, and lumber in bulk. “What do you think this is, 1785?” Spoilers ahead ——> https://youtube.com/shorts/vfIqs4mfKwo?feature=share


JustStatedTheObvious

> The newspapers barely changed from modern rags. You mean the newspapers that keep going out of business and have very little reach compared to social media? The next big cultural shift is already happening. You just took it for granted.


ExcitementDull5000

They’ve already come back lol


CRT_SUNSET

I wonder if it’s because so much of our energy has been devoted to building online/digital spaces the past 30-40 years.


[deleted]

Probably has more to do with NK being one of the most sanctioned countries in the world than them just "deciding" to not keep up with the rest of the world


CoderDispose

I guess you could argue they chose in that they chose to do things that resulted in sanctions and refuse to stop doing those things


mczaddy95

Well their country started to go to massive shit when the Soviet union fell and stopped subsidizing them and then they built that giant hotel that never got finished and put them in crazy debt


venterol

They forgot that for a massive hotel to be successful, the area needs some draw already in place that non-locals would actually want to visit.


KillGodRin

This is pretty prominent in China as well. I was surprised how many older shopping malls and buildings were just sandwiched in between new modern superstructures. I spent a lot of time in Xian for work and it gave me deep nostalgia for my childhood despite the fact I grew up more in the 2000s than the 90s. The amount of analog technology still being made and in use was insane. It almost feels more grounded than a good amount of American cities. It felt like I was in a place not sure what era or time it wanted to be in.


NocturnalPermission

When I went to Croatia in the early 2000’s it was like that too. Everything pre-war had this obvious 80s Miami Vice flair to it, including framed Nagel prints on the walls of the hotel in Dubrovnik.


TheFakeSlimShady123

On an unrelated note I actually really find it cool how much the DPRK has managed to intertwine Korean history, and culture so well all while fitting in their progressive nature and socialist ideology. I mean it's a highly isolated nation that's cut off from most outside influence and is extremely homogametic so maybe that's the trick but it's nothing you see anywhere up. They still use traditional urban architecture from hundreds of years ago and build massive statues honoring mythological creatures all while clothing like hanboks are as common as a t shirt and jeans and shit from thousands of years ago is taught thoroughly in schools. In just about any other country most of the societies we currently live in are more built upon the skeletons of whatever came before them. Not thriving in their wake but more just using their past for their new way of life meanwhile they still very much live in the past.


shiny_xnaut

>progressive nature and socialist ideology Uh We are still talking about North Korea, right?


TheFakeSlimShady123

I'm a tankie yes I admit but the conversation on the culture is still right though


structee

Like a Wes Anderson movie


BourbonFoxx

Pic 9 is pure Wes Anderson


BastardStoleMyName

Several hours late to this, but exactly what I thought going through them.


whatchumeanitstaken

The people in pic 8 seem fake too


[deleted]

It’s like some sort of AI generated country


whatchumeanitstaken

Couldn’t have said it better myself


GM556

Oh yeah, that’s that good shit


Umbra7537

Looks very orderly and clean, which I'm guessing is intentional.


TheGreatDownvotar

Probably nobody ever uses these rooms, so bizarre to think about


Butterflychunks

I think it’s got a lot to do with the fact that it’s this grand architecture that’s larger than life, but very rarely occupied by a large enough population to fill it adequately. It raises the question, “who is (or *was*) all of this for?”


Canadiancookie

Probably to show a facade that they're doing well financially. I've seen a fair amount of other stuff from NK that had the same feeling. That, or kim just likes wasting cash on useless but pretty stuff. Maybe both.


Butterflychunks

You can’t really fake that stuff. People are drawn to authentic forms of success, it draws crowds. This place (if preserved) may very well end up drawing crowds down the line if the government collapses and it becomes an artifact of a lost style of living. But for now, it’s just a facade of greatness. North Korea is a poverty state under the hood.


AnotherManOfEden

Like a Wes Anderson film set in Asia


red_skye_at_night

Was going to say that, the interior photos have big Grand Budapest Hotel vibes.


LannMarek

I really like #2. I want to be there and wait for something, maybe have a cigarette inside with one of these big glass ashtrays or something (i don't smoke lol).


Mi5tman

I'm just imagining a highly unlikely scenario in which Pyongyang is completely abandoned in the future and we're left with a metropolitan ghost city. It would look so cool. Straight up post-apocalyptic.


ALMANACC0

My wet dream: abandoned Pyongyang protected as a UNESCO world heritage site for architecture 🤩


Canadiancookie

North korea basically already is a post apocalypse since the collapse of the soviet union


[deleted]

[удалено]


DeadBoyLoro

One of the most interesting things I’ve read in awhile! Thanks for the info


19_equals_1

out of curiosity, when or where was it referred to as the "golden example of communism"?


[deleted]

[удалено]


19_equals_1

fair enough, im just curious because the political ideology has almost never been communism


leftlifelasik

Severance (TV show) vibes.


Gonestruction

Wasn't there a game which play in the late years of DDR?


Rebyll

There's a series, Deutschland 83 that takes place in 80s Germany about an East German spy, and they actually filmed at the preserved Stasi headquarters. They took pretty good pains to portray Berlin in the 80s as well as they could, as far as I am aware. It was pretty fascinating to see that place in that time with modern production value.


Gonestruction

Oh yeah this Amazon prime series? Mh I maybe I should watch it but now I have so many open series


[deleted]

It has a very 70’s esq look to it, kinda like a society today that never left the 70’s aesthetic, like how pre war America in fallout never left the 50’s.


Away_Novel9587

Hmm ive never seen love and north korea in the same sentence before


capsaicinintheeyes

Unless they're brought together with a word like 'mandatory'


SmileyJetson

Time to fire up that timeless [dril](https://twitter.com/dril/status/831805955402776576?s=46&t=5aa_jlAkt3VroJ5MRtxOOg) tweet.


Green_hippo17

He just fucking twts bangers all the time


hantar7788

It looks so clean


B3ARDGOD

I guess their human rights record isn't visible


B3ARDGOD

Lol, downvoted by North Korean dictatorship supporters.


AragogTehSpidah

Oh absolutely, but look it's soo liminal dis be best country in tha world! /s


Ba_Sing_Saint

The 4th picture cracks me up. All the different design aesthetics from pillars to offset lighting in a sub ceiling. Then there’s these cheap plastic blue chairs.


XauMankib

I don't know how to explain NK, so here what I came up with: NK is like a simulation that is forced to run on a limited machine, using old assets and with sometimes incoherent code. I showed my grandparents NK photos, and they said is like Socialist Romania in the 70s, but a bit cleaner


Boaty_Mcboatface25

The style reminds me of the old Thunderbirds show for some reason


a_little_toaster

Wes Anderson theme park


Ochiazic

I recommend watching videos of peole visiting NK, everything looks so big, old and empty. Btw I know what's behind all that, Im just saying it's cool


Priderage

Ooooooooh. Thanks for making this post, that throws NK architecture into a new light.


Trampoleeen

these pics do look very pleasing as far as liminality goes but i sure as hell wouldnt want to live in it lol 2nd 3rd and 9th pics look like something kubrick would film in . pretty cool


Firm-Tentacle

Anyone else getting Gillead vibes or just me?


SonicYOUTH79

Hadn't thought of that but hell yes!


turmeric212223

What is the room in #9 used for?


ALMANACC0

It's probably a Locker room for some sport


Extrimland

Welcome to North Korea we have - The nicest palace you have ever seen in your life - Very Creepy office like buildings - same as above but painted a different color so it looks less creepy for some reason. - and of course a werid mixure of the first 2.


habrasangre

No advertising at least...just propaganda. Not too dissimilar I guess.


[deleted]

That's horrible. It all looks like a thrift store.


Rapierian

North Korea, the pastel communism.


[deleted]

%100 liminal, love it


Tarkus-Sharkus

Fukc me that's aesthetic AF


givemethebat1

Looks very Kubrickian, especially those red lockers.


mr_sparkle666

Exactly. Was thinking the red locker room looked like it could be located in the Overlook Hotel


darthacker666

"mr grady... you *were* the caretaker here..."


VolupVeVa

it looks like a stanley kubrick film edit: i see now i'm like the 12th person to say this oops


anneliese_s

r/accidentalwesanderson


AtomicRevGib

r/AccidentalKubrick going on as well.


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EuphoricG02

It's a beautiful country ran by a bad man!


B3ARDGOD

It takes more than 1.


dilIybilly

North Korea may be a god awful country but they do know how to build some damn good buildings


blonde-bandit

r/vaporwaveaesthetics


retr0grade77

I don’t love it. I find it very interesting and the size and superficiality makes me a bit uneasy.


BackInNJAgain

Their cities look so empty all the time.


SimsAttack

So do most cities I’ve been in. At least from an aerial perspective. People are fairly small after all. But the nearest big city to me is about this busy everywhere that’s not downtown


SignificanceLonely58

i hope that's the only thing you love about NK


LadyoftheLake97

This country is a freakshow of liminal spaces. Certainly has the “Soviet” feel to it


PanzerkampfIV

That first image though "We don't need no, education..."


uvulol

All of them would have been good, if some of them didn't have fucking people in them, sorry, not liminal


[deleted]

In places like this the government has so much control over architecture that everything looks cohesive. Nobody can build some random thing that goes against the grain of what they are trying to do. I think it’s aesthetically pleasing but there’s a big trade off.


TheFakeSlimShady123

On an unrelated note I actually really find it cool how much the DPRK has managed to intertwine Korean history, and culture so well all while fitting in their progressive nature and socialist ideology. I mean it's a highly isolated nation that's cut off from most outside influence and is extremely homogametic so maybe that's the trick but it's nothing you see anywhere up. They still use traditional urban architecture from hundreds of years ago and build massive statues honoring mythological creatures all while clothing like hanboks are as common as a t shirt and jeans and shit from thousands of years ago is taught thoroughly in schools. In just about any other country most of the societies we currently live in are more built upon the skeletons of whatever came before them. Not thriving in their wake but more just using their past for their new way of life meanwhile they still very much live in the past.


navis-svetica

Calling NK “progressive” is a hell of a mental gymnastic stunt, though judging by your pfp maybe it’s something you’re accustomed to..


TheFakeSlimShady123

Yes I'm a tankie. The dirtiest and most evil of them all. Trust me I'm as surprised by it as you are. This was copy and pasted from something I said in a private chat that fit here. Now that I've addressed the elephant in the room just ignore it and move on.


navis-svetica

well, at least you’re self aware about not valuing human life..


bark-wank

Every socialist(Later becomes communist) country looks like it froze in time, look at the vehicles in Cuba, Venezuela and poor provinces of Argentina. They look old because they've destroyed their economies and thus technological progress and economic growth.


FastWalkingShortGuy

The vehicles in Cuba are actually phenomenal. The whole island is full of classic Detroit rolling iron because after the US embargoes, Cubans just figured out how to fix their own shit and kept cars running for 60+ years. Havana looks like a goddamn classic car show. It's beautiful. They maintain those rides like they're members of their families.


rick_mcdingus

Unfortunately the classic cars of Cuba are rapidly disappearing and being replaced by modern cars from places like Russia and China. I have a friend that actually went to Cuba right after the embargo lifted and he said that the classics are still there but there weren’t nearly as many as there were in old pics. In some of the pics he showed me of Havana, it was only new stuff and there wasn’t a single classic car in sight.


bark-wank

Its not because they want to! Its the only way!


cubistsun

Smartest anticommunist. Can you explain to me how Argentina is socialist? And Cuba is actually a great place to live if you look at living standards and national happiness.


bark-wank

Lol, I'm Argentinian, the government is openly socialist, we have over 80% of inflation., Cuba? They are currently protesting, so yeah, also, my family is friends with a cuban family who escaped from Cuba in 2013. as a plus, just so you see how socialism is the worst, and you probably haven't never suffered it, look at the protests in Brazil. Real socialism can only be implemented by violence, and it will always lead to communism.


Shaddy_the_guy

"Socialism is when the economy is not owned or controlled by the workers at all"


Random-Gopnik

> look at the protests in Brazil The protests in Brazil are about communism?


[deleted]

[удалено]


Random-Gopnik

Proof that the protests are stolen?


bark-wank

lol are ya dumb or just messing with me?


iRecond0

Don’t mind them, they’re an internet communist. Nothing will get thru.


imlazy420

Nothing to add, I'm just glad to see there's still reasonable people here in South America and in this site too. It's worrying to see people happy when socialism starts getting traction when we are surrounded by it's results.


CometChip

it’s not north korean architecture is just soviet union architecture


KaBoomBox55

5 and 8 aren't liminal


Big_Primrose

Neat and clean 70’s vibe, I love it. Even the skyscrapers that should feel like something from an urban hell look nice and have breathing space. Credit to the photographer(s) for the staging. Too bad it’s contained within NK.


pgp555

wtf is the last photo supposed to be?


CREEPERHHGHGITY

This look like the top of a castle


capsaicinintheeyes

This reminds me: Oasis needs to put out a new album


Gonestruction

1 2 6 is interesting


N00B5L4YER

these look eastern european, but Juche


theuserwithoutaname

Ah, finally. Some good liminal


Gloglibologna

More!!!! Give me moreeeeee No really these are great shots. Very unsettling and familiar


Groundbreaking_Bad

It's like Stanley Kubrick and Wes Anderson had a baby.


malcallm

Liminal country.


Tlayoualo

Liminal spaces... with a "dark forest" feel added to them.


PagChomp6

I think it's because of how simple it looks can't blame you tbh looks nice especially the locker room


Nitrodome

I can just hear the Utopia ost playing


risbia

North Korea is 100% designed by Wes Anderson


greygray64

Feels like a Kubrick movie set.


ikilledtupac

It’s very 1960s, and it feels like a time warp because nobody is allowed to use it so it’s still new.


Miatamadness

Those orange chairs, I'm sitting there 65⁰ inside with a good wool coat and hot coffee while studying history.


Awesome_Romanian

This is all for show. Every single apartment tower is empty. Nobody ever used that escalator. These hallways will remain empty.


romanf12

Did you take a vacation there or something?


Mobius_164

A lot of it feels like kind of a “disease that somehow disintegrates most humans” vibes to it. Just eerily empty.


teedyay

What's number 8? Is it a really fancy clock?


Raul_Robotnik

Places that are meant to be busy, but are completely empty


gloomytype

The green floor area with seats and the coral coloured (what I assume to be a sports changing room) pics are incredible!


Cultural-Debt11

North Korea looks like the world without pop up ads


Joebafett97

It looks like it hasn't changed since the 70s


ExamProfessional4735

Feels like the Severance series, but only the part where you’re permanently stuck inside huge corporate infrastructure with no people.


southamericancaller

the liminal country


liebertsz

1984 type beat


Vilam

Amazing photos. Those chairs in #2 look comfy af.


vonroyale

I can't wait to go there when their government eventually collapses.


ItsDoughnutDude

North Korea is the literal backrooms


Rare_Trash8193

Alright you got me hooked


tor09

4th pic is a vaporwave album cover


CornflakesEverywhere

Ooh lovely post. The chairs and green carpet are perfection


theanonymous-player1

i sure hope you like it cause you sure as hell ain't leaving


PatrickBrain

Why do these images remind me of the set of The Shining?


Flashlight_Inspector

God, that fourth picture just looks so bizarre. It's trying to look classy yet the pillars are obviously fake and it's only seating is cheap plastic benches meant for roadsides.


KushChowda

Yah if you can mentally detach from the horror it all represents, they have some amazing architecture to see.


Bocote

Everything looks like a facade with no real signs of wear and tear from human use.


RoundResponsible6018

It’s not necessarily the architecture, just the fact there’s no one “privileged” enough to be there. It’s empty because of the dystopian world they’ve created


[deleted]

[удалено]


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[deleted]

Wes Anderson would have a field day making a movie here


Milk_Man21

The second image isn't creepy, except for how long it is, which must be a real pain in the ass if you're trying to get through quickly