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Monumental structures and new streets in the capital city and structures built in local areas are associated with the efforts of the designers of the Pyongyang Urban Planning Institute.

In recent years alone the institute has presented large numbers of designs for those structures such as an overhead bridge in Songhwa Street, Jonwi Street, dwelling houses of the fourth stage of the Hwasong area, the vegetable science research centre of the Sinuiju Combined Greenhouse Farm and the Samgwang Livestock Farm, said Kim Sung Jin, section chief of the institute.

It is equivalent to the successes achieved in 70 years since the establishment of the institute, he added.

Organized in 1947, two years after Korea’s liberation, the institute designed the main building of Kim Il Sung University, Mangyongdae Revolutionary School and the then central general hospital as its first projects.

Its architects completed the master plan for the postwar reconstruction of Pyongyang and designs for restoring some structures in the capital city even during the Fatherland Liberation War (June 25 1950-July 27 1953) and continued afterwards to draw the future of the country to be more beautiful.

It designed hundreds of projects of national significance up to 2017 and the designs associated with their painstaking efforts turned into monumental edifices representing the relevant eras in different parts of Pyongyang.

It has produced many talented designers including those honoured with the titles of Labour Hero, People’s Designer and Merited Designer. The designers in their 20s and 30s form the backbone of the institute at present.

According to Kim, they made a great contribution to completing the designs of many structures at a high level, including the overhead bridge in Songhwa Street inaugurated in 2022, the connected service network, an iconic structure of the third-stage 10 000 flats in the Hwasong area inaugurated in 2025 and the Samgwang Livestock Farm completed in 2026 as a new model for socialist rural construction in the new era and the development of animal husbandry.

At present, all the architects of the institute are working hard to complete architectural designs as befit the present era when the golden age of construction, a new era of changes, has been ushered in and the Korean people’s ideals.

“We are filled with a unique emotion as we see those structures on this land. We create the beautiful future of the country on the blueprint and it is the charm, pride and honour we have from our profession,” said Kim Sung Jin.