Ryugen Hotel: Unfulfilled Dream of Korean Communism (North Korea)

A huge pyramidal structure can be seen in the capital of the DPRK, the city of Pyongyang. This surreal building is the never-opened Ryugyong Hotel, which can be called one of the modern attractions of the North Korean capital.

The height of the Ryugyong Hotel is 330 meters. It has 105 floors and a total internal area of 360 thousand square meters. The building has three wings with facades 100 meters long and 18 meters wide each. At the top of the hotel is a structure of 14 floors overall height 40 meters. Its eight bottom floors can rotate, while the top six remain stationary.

Ryugyong has a very unusual story. Its construction began in 1987 and was a kind of response to the opening of the five-star Stamford Hotel in Singapore, the author of which was a South Korean company. For the construction of the Ryugyong Hotel, the North Korean government decided to attract foreign investors, from whom it was planned to raise $230 million.

The Ryugyong Hotel was supposed to open in 1989 on the day of the World Festival of Youth and Students. However, economic crisis and funding problems led to a halt in construction work, although by that time it had been implemented most of of the project and the unfinished building have already been put on city maps and guidebooks.

In 2008, it was decided to complete the Ryugyong Hotel and the authorities signed a contract with an Egyptian company for the reconstruction of the unfinished building. So another 400 million dollars were invested in the project. In 2012, Swiss international luxury hotel chain Kempinski Hotels expressed a desire to operate a North Korean hotel. But already in 2013, under pressure from the United States, the company refused to work in Pyongyang.

By 2015, the Ryugyong Hotel was fully completed, but still has not opened. According to Japanese experts, in general, the North Korean government spent about $750 million on the construction of the hotel.

The building of the Ryugyong Hotel was to become the tallest hotel in the world and take the 7th place in height among all the world's skyscrapers. Now it is the 46th tallest building in Asia and 59th in the world. But still, this is the only hotel in which there are more than a hundred floors.

Lovers of beautiful but derelict architecture will take a look at this magnificent early 20th-century Art Nouveau building.

Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea, was intended to be the tallest hotel in the world. After 23 years from the start of construction, the project is not completed.

At the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century, Asia is experiencing an economic boom, which also manifested itself in high-rise construction. Skyscrapers began to appear here like mushrooms after rain. Dubai, Taipei, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur - this is a far from complete list of cities that have built impressive buildings in height to demonstrate their prosperity and modernity.

A similar project was started in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, in 1987. The Ryugyong Hotel was conceived as a giant symbol to showcase the power and success of North Korea. The 330-meter pyramid was supposed to become the architectural dominant in the guise of the progressive capital of North Korea. It was supposed to be the tallest hotel in the world with an area of 360,000 square meters and a height of 105 floors. The top 14 floors are a cone-shaped structure in which 8 floors can rotate.

The project provided for 3,000 rooms, 7 restaurants overlooking the capital of North Korea, casinos, nightclubs, and all this should have been ready back in 1989 for the World Festival of Youth and Students. The still unfinished hotel was marked on maps, in guidebooks, and even postage stamps were issued with its image.

But construction stopped in 1992, three years after the hotel was supposed to be put into operation. For 16 years, the skeleton of an unfinished skyscraper towered over the capital of North Korea like a huge ghost. The problems began after the collapse of the USSR, the largest benefactor in North Korea.

Looking at the rare photographs of the hotel of that period, which few tourists managed to take, despite the ban on shooting the building, one agrees with the architects who called the Rügen Hotel: "the ugliest building in the world", "the only piece of science fiction in the modern world."

But, "nothing lasts forever under the moon." In 2008, the Egyptian firm Orascom began refurbishing the unfinished hotel. The North Korean government paid off the Egyptians, giving them the opportunity to deploy a network in the country cellular communication third generation. Also, not the last role, I think, was played by the love of the Egyptians for the pyramids. At the moment, the exterior cladding of the hotel is close to completion. North Korean authorities say construction will be completed in 2012. If this happens, then 25 years after the start of construction, Rügen will break Dubai's monopoly and become the second most high hotels in the world with a margin of just 3 meters from the Dubai Rose Hotel.

There is no doubt that the Rügen Hotel was an extremely ambitious project with no real practical purpose. The building was born out of a desire to draw attention to Pyongyang and North Korea in general and should serve the prestige of the closed country in the world.

“The last piece of science fiction”, “the ugliest building in the world”, “ghost hotel”, “the unfulfilled dream of North Korean leaders” - no matter how they call this monumental building, which has been under construction since the 1980s in the center of Pyongyang. Ryugyong Hotel today is most tall building North Korea, as well as one of the most ambitious and, at the same time, absurd projects in the world.

North Korea Ghost Hotel - Ryugyong Hotel Skyscraper

Panorama of the capital of North Korea - Pyongyang and the Taedong River

North Korea for foreign tourists located behind a kind of "iron curtain". A visit to this country will inevitably take place according to the scenario proposed by the local government: visiting only strictly defined places without unnecessary amateur performance. Each foreigner / group of foreigners is assigned a separate guide, under whose vigilant control there is an acquaintance with the monuments and mausoleums of Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung, museums, monuments, exemplary "houses local residents”, in fact, they are nothing more than scenery for showing to tourists. Not one step away from the established route.

Mausoleum of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il

Festive parade in Pyongyang with the Juche Idea Monument in the background

The Arirang Show in Pyongyang is one of the most spectacular performances in the world.

All tourists coming to the country are accommodated in special hotels for foreigners. With European cuisine, TV, acceptable quality of service. It is not allowed to leave the hotel without an accompanying guide. The monumental skyscraper, 330 meters high, stood out most against the background of all hotels in Pyongyang, called Ryugyong(translated from Korean, "ryugyong" means "willow capital" - one of the old names for Pyongyang). This grand building was intended to become a symbol of the prosperity of the communist country and break the record for being the tallest hotel in the world.

Ambitious project of North Korean leaders - the skyscraper of the Ryugen Hotel

But, contrary to the expectations of the North Korean leaders, the miracle did not happen. Due to lack of funding, the construction of the building dragged on from 1987 to 2013, which was not very consistent with the propaganda of the idea of a prosperous economy. And in the rank of the Korean skyscraper was also behind. In conclusion, the hotel has not yet been commissioned, remaining the largest empty building on the planet.

"The Last Shard of Science Fiction" - Ryugen Skyscraper, North Korea

The Government of the country enthusiastically set about implementing the project. To attract foreign investors, promises were made to loosen controls and even permit the construction of casinos and nightclubs. In the bright plans of Korean leaders, the 3,000-room Ryugen Hotel was to open its doors in 1989, shortly before the July Festival of Youth and Students.

Ryugyong Futuristic Hotel Project, Pyongyang

These optimistic plans were not destined to come true. The project did not interest investors and rapidly absorbed the country's budget (some foreign sources estimated the amount spent on construction at $750 million, or 2% of North Korea's GDP). Finally, in 1992, due to the difficult economic situation in the country, construction was stopped. A gigantic unfinished skyscraper towered over downtown Pyongyang like sad symbol unfulfilled hopes and inflated ambitions.

But the story doesn't end there. In 2008, the Egyptian company Orascom group, under an agreement with the North Korean government, resumes construction work on the future Ryugen Hotel. The building is being reconstructed, as the upper part of the building is not made correctly and is in danger of falling off.

Construction stages of the Ryugyong skyscraper - 2009 and 2005

In 2013, the completion of the Korean long-term construction was announced. But the skyscraper is still an unfortunate "ghost hotel" that has not yet been put into operation. Not only could the hotel not be built for so long, but now they cannot open it. For some time, the Kempinsky hotel chain showed interest in the Korean skyscraper, but, in the face of the threat of sanctions from the United States, eventually abandoned the idea of managing the hotel.

The massive concrete structure of the Rügen Hotel consists of three wings that join to form the top of the structure. 330-meter skyscraper has 105 floors, eight of which are located on a special rotating platform.

Part of the upper floors of the skyscraper is a rotating platform; according to the project plan, it is planned to place restaurants here

In 2012, a number of photographs of the building's interior were leaked to the press. The photographs were taken by a Chinese journalist travel company Koryo Tours.

The construction of the skyscraper is finally completed, but the interior decoration has not even begun yet.

The giant skyscraper in the center of Pyongyang is still empty. The unfulfilled dream of Korean communism awaits an influx of capital and, as of today, has earned only one record: the title of the largest uninhabited building on the planet.

Photo credits: koryogroup.com, www.dailymail.co.uk, www.wallpaperup.com, daypic.ru, wikipedia.org, yonhapnews.co.kr, all-that-is-interesting.com, www.roughguides.com , www.huffingtonpost.com, www.news.cn, www.flickriver.com, www.panoramio.com, Invision Images/Redux, Google Image.

The cost of staying at the hotel

Due to vague plans for the future of the long-term hotel, there is no information regarding indicative prices for accommodation in the event of its commissioning. Rates for a mid-range hotel room in Pyongyang start at $50 per night. Rates for international calls from hotels in North Korea are at least $4 per minute.

Video

Location

Ryugyong Hotel
Address: Pyongyang, North Korea
ryugyonghotel.com

A three-hundred-meter skyscraper would have looked impressive against the backdrop of any urban landscape. What can we say about the city of Pyongyang (the capital of the DPRK), where the Ryugen Hotel dominates not only the skyline, but the entire urban landscape as a whole. By the way, the construction of the Rügen Hotel, which is the most big building on the territory of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, was not completed until 2013.

In 1986, the South Korean Group of Architects completed work on the Westin Stamford Hotel, a 226-meter structure in Singapore. The largest project that a Korean company has ever worked on was completed. The communist rulers of North Korea wanted to prove that their engineers could build an even grander skyscraper. The construction of the Rügen Hotel began in 1987, at the same time finned tubes and other parts of the heating systems were purchased.

The hotel building consists of three triangular sections. The sections converge at the top, giving the structure a pyramidal shape. The giant skyscraper covers an area of 360,000 square meters, which is approximately equal to 67 football fields. At the very top of the hotel is a forty-meter, eight-story conical structure where visitors can dine in seven revolving restaurants. In total, the Rügen Hotel has about 3,000 thousand rooms. large area commercial facilities are also occupied here.

According to the original plans, the hotel was planned to open in 1989, however, due to construction problems, the government was forced to postpone this date several times. In the 1990s, project managers faced serious problems. The poor quality of building materials, lack of electricity, and widespread famine all presaged the winding down of the construction project. And finally, in 1992, the construction of the Rügen Hotel was frozen.

The Japanese media claimed that the construction of such a large-scale construction project absorbed almost 2% of the DPRK's GDP. Since then, newspapers have referred to the Ryugen Hotel as "the most disgusting building" or "the hotel of oblivion", after which it has become a popular North Korean landmark.

In 2013, the construction of the hotel was nevertheless completed, however, Rügen was never put into operation.

Let's continue to study with you. Who is behind the tour - follow the link and quickly see where we have already been. Now let's go further and where would you think? They would not have guessed for anything - North Korea. I once had a post from the everyday life of this country and - you can learn a lot for yourself from behind the other side of the Iron Curtain. But let's continue about our pyramid...

How do you like the photo at the beginning of the post? I personally thought it was a scene from a science fiction movie. But then I remembered some ancient unfinished building in a distant country, and for sure. This is a very real place.

Let's read in more detail what kind of project it is, what is happening there now and what is planned...

Legend tells that the first attempt to build the most high tower failed. This idea caused the wrath of the sky, as a result, a mixture of languages \u200b\u200bhas happened, and people have ceased to understand each other. Millennia passed and history repeated itself. Only this did not lead to a linguistic crisis, but to multimillion-dollar losses.

But it's still annoying. Whether the North Korean company Baekdu Mountain Architects & Engineers was well aware of the biblical tradition of the Babylonian disaster is now beyond anyone's knowledge. But, one way or another, its owners in 1987 decided to start construction in Pyongyang the tallest hotel in the WORLD.

It was possible, of course, to do without this project, but in 1986, a South Korean company took part in the construction of the Swissôtel The Stamford skyscraper hotel in Singapore, and this could not be left unanswered.

Viewed from Earth orbit, the Ryugyong might have looked like a habitable structure if it weren't for the suspiciously frail green spaces around (photo by DigitalGlobe).

The North Korean building was named "Ryugyong" (Ryugyong Hotel) - in honor of one of the old names Pyongyang, which literally means "capital of willows." They decided to build on an unprecedented scale. The hotel consists of three wings converging towards the center, each of which is 18 meters wide and 100 meters long.

Here, it seems, they began to build an underground parking lot or something like that.

Particularly interesting is the forty-meter top, consisting of 8 rotating and 6 uppermost fixed floors. Only 105 floors with a total height of 330 meters, which is much more impressive than Swissôtel, which "gained" 73 floors and 226 meters. But it was not only a matter of competition - the North Korean authorities felt that Ryugyong could be a very profitable design.

From afar, at first glance, "Ryugen" resembles something native - either the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower, or main building Moscow State University

For the sake of income from the hotel, it was decided to attract foreign investors, for which a whole firm, Ryugyong Hotel Investment and Management Co., was created. They were even ready to make some concessions - to allow them to open casinos and nightclubs there, which is simply unprecedented for this country. Although, of course, such establishments could easily get lost there - in total, the area of the hotel was supposed to be 360 thousand square meters.

Italian designers have proposed several options for using a useless design. At least one of them can be both profitable and fashionable.

It was expected that thanks to this enterprise it would be possible to get a serious profit - $ 230 million.

In the foreground - functioning palace sports, in the back - "Ryugen". Obviously, many Pyongyang buildings stand each other, but not all of them are in a "half-dead" state

Construction proceeded at an optimistic pace. At least, this was evidenced by the government's plans to open a hotel for the 1989 World Festival of Youth and Students.

The costs were also impressive - $ 750 million was spent on the construction of the reinforced concrete structure. According to Japanese economists, this amount amounted to 2% of the gross domestic product of the DPRK. "Ryugyong" even made it onto Korean postage stamps and tourist maps Pyongyang.

Yes, that's bad luck - by this time the overlay after overlay had begun. Various problems made themselves felt: either a lack of funding, or power outages, or a shortage of building materials.

In the end, in 1992, construction was completely stopped.

There was no communication inside the building. Of course, window blocks were also installed.

In general, in 2006 - this is just a concrete building. However, after a long silence, the Ryugen builders recently decided that it would be a good idea to resume construction.

Screenshot from Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction.

The creators of this game could not resist and still "glazed" the windows of the hotel

The cover of the "From The Ryugyong Hotel" music collection, dedicated to the struggle for freedom in North Korea.

The symbol of totalitarianism certainly became the hotel "Ryugen"

Probably, the approval of the German real estate company Emporis played an important role in this.
She said that the hotel could no longer be used - in particular, because of the poor quality of concrete, which makes the operation of the building unsafe.

Although the building became the tallest in North Korea, after such a message, it is rather doubtful that at least someone who dares to participate in its completion will appear.

Unless the Koreans themselves would suddenly find some strength and resources for this.

But in any case, this ridiculous architectural experience was not in vain. For some, he has become another symbol of the totalitarian regime. For others - mostly artists and designers - an object for aesthetic exercises. True, only on computer models - they were not allowed close to the hotel. Perhaps the building pleases fans of philatelic rarities.

By the way, "Ryugen" found "application" in the computer game Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, where it turned out to be an indispensable fragment of the landscape.

In the 2000s, there was no certainty about the fate of the hotel: whether it would be demolished, whether it would find a use, or whether it would simply fade into obscurity like the same tower of babel. All the events that develop around Ryugyong are happening too slowly.

In the meantime, the crane, which remained at the very top of the building, which had not yet been "taught" to rotate, continued to slowly rust ...

And in 2008, the Egyptian group of companies Orascom began work on the restoration of Pyongyang's Ryugyong Hotel. This fact is interesting because this unfinished structure horrifies many architects, and according to Esquire magazine, the hotel is "the worst building in the history of mankind"

Despite its grandeur, the project was subject to criticism from experts in the field of architecture. According to the publication, American architecture critic Eva Hagberg was the first to say that the Rügen Hotel is the ugliest building in the world, while Italian architect Stefano Boeri called it "the only piece of science fiction in the modern world."

Richard Dank and Andreas Gruber, architects from Germany, call themselves the "broad pyramid watchmen". On their website Ryugyong.org, you can see all the details of the building in a 3D model and even try to "make a place for yourself" in an empty building.

The video of the Italian architects dedicated to the Ryugyong Hotel, called Demolition S How video, is much simpler than the material posted on the website of the German architects. However, viewing it is great entertainment for the curious who want to make virtual walk in a fictitious Pyongyang led by Stefano Boeri, known for his exhibition of 120 imaginary hotel design projects, released in June 2006. He calls the world's worst building "a piece of science fiction in the modern world."

Why on earth North Korea agreed to cooperate with Orascom is still unclear. However, Egyptian labor companies are already engaged in the restoration of Ryugen. In particular, it is known that the uppermost floors have already been somehow equipped.

According to some reports, Orascom Telecom is the main investor in the project. It took between $750 million and $2 billion to fully complete the construction and eliminate the structural deficiencies in the building. However, whether the Egyptians intend to carry out the reconstruction in full, has not yet been reported.

Both new and old photos of the hotel are not so common. Video recordings are rare. main reason- filming and photography near Ryugyong is prohibited, and an unlucky tourist who violates this rule risks being arrested.

The North Korean government paid off the Egyptians by giving them the opportunity to deploy a third-generation cellular network in the country. Also, not the last role, I think, was played by the love of the Egyptians for the pyramids. At the moment, the exterior cladding of the hotel is close to completion. North Korean authorities say construction will be completed in 2012. If this happens, then 25 years after the start of construction, Rügen will break Dubai's monopoly and become the second tallest hotel in the world with a lead of just 3 meters from Dubai's Rose Hotel.