Also, the results showed that the cultural value, economic value, historical value, and identity greatly influence the semantic conservation of the architectural heritage. According to the results of the content analysis, it can be concluded that the conservation of architectural heritage can be investigated and analyzed at three levels: people, experts, and governments, and the holistic conservation of the architectural heritage can be achieved only by the joint cooperation among all the three levels. In this study, the qualitative content analysis was used to evaluate the relationship between the architectural heritage and conservation, and the quantitative content analysis was used to assess the relationship between the semantic values and conservation. The snowball sampling method was used to select the papers. To this end, more than 100 scientific documents, statements, and charters were analyzed and then, 40 semantic values were identified. Since there is no serious and comprehensive research on the semantic values, the present study was conducted to identify all the influential semantic values in the architectural conservation process and to determine the importance of each value based on the published literature. Conservation practice is based on the values offered by the architectural heritage resources for different individuals, groups, societies, and governments. He visited Pyongyang for research in 2010 and is the author of Pyongyang, and Pyongyang After (published by Hyohyung Publishing in Korean last year).The conservation of the architectural heritage has enjoyed a long course of development over the recent decades. I believe more publications like Architectural Guide: Pyongyang and more tourism will help us understand Pyongyang from our own perspectives.ĭongwoo Yim, an architect in Boston who teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design, wrote his masters thesis on “Urban Transformation of Pyongyang” while at Harvard University in 2008. Surprisingly, for a tourist, North Korea is one of the safest countries in the world, if you follow the government's guidelines. Since the new leader Kim Jong-Un came to power, the nation seems to be opening its door to Western tourists, including Americans. I suspect this book will catalyze other publications and research on architecture and urbanism in North Korea. But since Pyongyang is still wrapped in a veil of secrecy, such an objective introduction will have to suffice for now. One weakness of the book is that it provides factual information about the city, without any social, economic, or political analysis. The book addresses this subject in a section called “On Architecture,” explaining the tight connection between construction, aesthetics, and propaganda. Kim understood he could advance his ideology and propaganda through architecture and urban design. Such a cohesive built environment was made possible by the city's destruction during the Korean War in the 1950s and the imposition of former leader Kim Jong-Il's aesthetic will during his reign (1994-2011). These are fundamentals in urban planning and design theories, but only few cities have realized them as clearly as Pyongyang.
He points out that, besides the construction quality and choice of materials in individual buildings, the cityscape of Pyongyang should be appreciated for its clear urban structure, carefully proportioned blocks, and distinctive iconographic architecture. The book's editor, Philipp Meuser, examines Pyongyang from a macro perspective, seeing it as more than just an aggregation of individual buildings. However, it would have remained merely a guidebook had it not included a second volume focusing on the city's historic and theoretical context. It covers all major building types-from civic to cultural to residential-making it easy to see the range of architectural expression in North Korea. Its first volume is a catalog of almost 100 buildings documented in photographs provided by the nation's official publisher. This book shows a lot of different work in Pyongyang. Besides from news about country's famine, we barely how people live in Pyongyang and what their actual living environments are like. Sometimes, even generic residential buildings look interesting simply because they are in the most elusive city. The city has developed a wide range of modern architectural languages-from rationalism to nationalism-using symbolism in many major buildings. But most buildings are outdated and little new construction has happened since 2000. When you visit it, what you see first is a modern capital built of concrete and laid out on a rationalized urban plan-not a city of dictatorship or poverty.
In an odd way, Pyongyang is Modernism’s dream: an ideal socialist city.