President
Under his careful guidance to establish the Juche orientation in architecture and to build the school as suited to the feelings and emotions of our people, the school was set up in a Korean way while being harmonious with the geographical features of the area.
President
"Even if we are to build a single house, we should do it in line with the national form and our people's feelings."
Even if we are to build a single house, we should do it in our own fashion–this was an important demand he raised for the field of architectural creation from the first days after the country's liberation and a fundamental principle he adhered to in leading the field throughout his life.
After the country's liberation, the dogmatists and worshippers of big countries in our country, in disregard of the natural, geographical and national features, claimed about creating a globally-conventional form, or the so-called international form; and the structuralism upholders, advocating only structure and building materials, negated applying the national features in architecture.
At that time, stressing the need to establish the Juche orientation in architectural creation, President
In late August Juche 36(1947), he went over its design, putting to rights the deviations revealed in the design.
He said that building Mangyongdae Revolutionary School in a splendid way is an important undertaking for training the bereaved children of revolutionaries into the pillars of the country. As the project is so important, we have put it above all other construction projects and ensured that the cereals donated by Kim Je Won and other peasants out of patriotism are used for the construction of this school and
Noting that the mistakes revealed in the design was that the school building was planned to be built in European style, he said that our people did not like European-style structures and that we should build all structures as suited to our people's feelings, stressing once again that, as we liberated our country, even if we were to build a single house, we should do it in our own way.
His instructions meant that the Juche orientation should be established in architecture and every house be built as suited to the feelings and emotions of our people.
That day he also clarified in detail the ways for drawing the design of the school building in our own way, like setting up the main building, now planned to be constructed as a single-storied one, to be a two-storied one as all the children of the revolutionaries who had dedicated their lives for the liberation and independence of the country were to study here, building the dormitory planned to be built on a lower place than that of the main building to be a three-storied one, designing the buildings to be big and splendid and to sustain the national form without being restricted to funds and materials, and making all the buildings go well with the terrain features.
What he meant was that architecture that suits the feelings and emotions of our people, that is useful and convenient for them and that meets the natural and geographical conditions of our country was our style of architecture.
This idea he advanced after the country's liberation was a great idea on architecture root of which is different from the assertions by the advocates of expressionism, naturalism, functionalism and structuralism in architecture and by others who were slinging mud at human architecture.
Under his energetic guidance and prudent care, the building of Mangyongdae Revolutionary School in the capital city of Pyongyang after the country's liberation was completed in a splendid way as an architectural structure in national form.
