Pyongyang Blue Roofs

The colorful roofs of songjeong dong an industrial district in busan south korea are seen in this overview.

Pyongyang blue roofs.

The wide avenues of pyongyang are home of other efforts towards a better image for a quite manhandled country on the international scene. As hairdressers dozens of people mow scissors in their hands the lawn sometimes splitting roads from pedestrian ways. Most now are grey but there are some that are orange. The grand people s study house has greenish blue roofs because that was during monarchic times the colour of royal building roofs.

The north koreans say that after socialism the colour was used for the roofs of public buildings because it was the people that replaced the kings. The blue roofs were popular aesthetically for a short period in the 1970s but you don t see new buildings these days with blue roofs. North koreans paint the roof of a restaurant in downtown pyongyang oct. Now of course we re all yangban so it doesn t seem important to the outsider.

Insofar as someone can afford blue tiles they must be wealthy. Traditionally the blue tile indicated high social status for that family. This imagery is also present in south korea. Built from 1948 pyongyang has been closed to the world for 70 years and is a time capsule with an aesthetic like no other city on the planet.

Their head of state lives in the blue house which also has these blue tiles. But the blue roof tile that the old wealthy koreans used indeed super wealthy weren t just blue roof tile they were greenish blue ceramic tiles. These were produced the same way as other ceramic ware and thus extremely expensive. Blue crow s pyongyang architectural guide pulls back the world s last iron curtain to reveal a snapshot of life in the hermit kingdom through iconic landmarks in the capital.

Benjamin grant credits the abundance of blue to aluminum. They live all together under the blue roofs characterising the camps they built on. Because blue roof tile used to be sign of wealth since the goryeo times. E g note that the korean white house is blue.

The striking colors that you.