In April 2017 Ryomyong Street went up in the capital city of Pyongyang on the occasion of the 105th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung.
In March 2016 Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un came to the site and declared the beginning of construction of the street. He named it Ryomyong Street as it would go up on a significant place where the dawn of the Korean revolution broke, and taught the general direction and principles of the project.
He saw to it that not-so-tall but good-looking buildings were built cosily in the direction of the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun where President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il lie in state, and that skyscrapers were built intensively on the principle of symbolism in the direction of the local tower to the immortality of the President and the Chairman at the Ryonghung Crossroads so as to form a magnificent architectural group. Examining the scale model, the general plan of layout and relief model of the street the Supreme Leader clarified in detail the issues of principle for building the Ryomyong Street into an energy-saving and green type in the 21st century, setting forth tasks arising in building the future-oriented street of the Juche-based architectural arts.
True to his intention the groundbreaking of the project started in April 2016. The project included the construction of 44 blocks of skyscrapers and highrise and multistorey apartments for more than 4 800 families and over 40 blocks of public establishments including nursery and kindergarten in an area of over 90 hectares, and the renovation of over 70 blocks of apartment houses and public facilities. The builders completely removed over 30 blocks of old buildings and debris of hundreds of thousands of cubic metres, finished footing excavation of over five hundred thousand cubic metres and started ground concrete tamping for apartments in less than twenty days after the groundbreaking. On average the frames of flats for over 100 families were completed every day, and thus those of the skyscrapers, 70% of the architectural group, were completed in a little over three months after the groundbreaking. A 70-storey apartment, the highest one in the street, is over 200 m high with a total floor space of over 120 000m2 , and its builders created a legendary speed of construction by finishing its frame in only 74 days.
During the building of the Ryomyong Street the Supreme Leader gave energetic and scrupulous guidance to the project ceaselessly. He examined many scale models without omission, and gave scrupulous instructions as to the details of the formation of the street which even experts had failed to think of. He taught the principled matters to be adhered to in the construction of the skyscrapers and multi-storey apartments, including the matter of setting different apartment sections and constructing the buildings with their own unique characteristics in each section; and the matter of linking the lower floors of the 70-storey and 55-storey apartments so as to set up a shopping mall.
He examined a thousand and several hundred scale models. Thanks to his meticulous guidance highly artistic distinctive buildings went up on the region where the Jangsan Stream was flowing, thus forming a modern architectural group of skyscrapers round the tower to the immortality of President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il, and the ideological and artistic quality and practicality were ensured thoroughly in the construction of Ryomyong Street.
Especially, Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un gave instructions that geothermal cooling and heating system should be introduced into public establishments and apartments with the main emphasis put on constructing power-saving buildings, and that welfare service facilities should be designed to be well lighted naturally. Thus energy-saving technique and green architecture, which ensure the effective use of renewable energy including geotherm, were widely applied to the construction of Ryomyong Street, and the surroundings were distinctively turned into groves and parks. Scores of advanced construction techniques were applied in the project. In particular, energy-saving techniques were actively introduced: a passive solar heating technique; a sunlight-guide illumination technique; an air-cooling load reducing technique; a sound- and lightsensing illumination technique; a geothermal ventilation technique which reduces the consumption of power; a geothermal floor heating technique; and a geothermal cooling and heating system.
Green architecture was introduced in the construction of the Ryomyong Street such as a hydroponic cultivation technique which automatically controls the plant growth by computer, a rainwater-using technique, a thin-layer roof greening technique and a wall surface greening technique. The thin-layer roof greening technique was widely applied to the apartments and public establishments of the street. Planting on the roofs of the apartment buildings and public establishments with good species of trees and turf makes it possible to prevent indoor temperature from rising in summer, and prevent the temperature from falling in winter.
The roofs of scores of blocks of apartment buildings, interconnected service networks and public establishments were covered with thin layers of light substratum to be planted with trees and turf.
Meanwhile, natural lighting was actively introduced in the service facilities and public establishments so as to save electricity as much as possible. And sunlight-guide illumination devices were installed at the service facilities such as underground garage, equipment room and underground shop that the sunlight cannot reach. Anion-generating plastic wallpaper and paint were used in the apartments. Such wallpaper and paint always generate anion, thus they produce good effect on the health of people and provide a wonderful green environment.
The World Health Organization made it public that the anion density in the air good to the health is 600/㎤ normally, and that almost all diseases break out when its density is below the normal level.
Researchers of the State Academy of Sciences surveyed and extracted natural tourmaline which can generate anion permanently. They made plastic wallpaper and inside-coating material with it, and it was proved scientifically that anion density of them is 1 760/㎤ and 1 530/㎤ respectively.
A rainwater-recycling system was applied to the buildings with their roofs covered with greenhouses. The system gathers the rainwater, and supplies the water through its own feedwater network when the precipitation is not sufficient. It was also applied to kindergartens and nurseries.
Different energy-saving techniques were introduced in the buildings and gymnasiums of several primary and senior middle schools such as a technique of preventing summer sunlight from streaming indoors with a shade-style light-interrupting structure to keep indoor temperature from rising and reduce air cooling load, and a technique of saving electricity which ensures interior ventilation and temperature in summer by using geotherm and waste heat from ventilation.
Good measures for heat insulation of buildings were taken to provide a proper indoor temperature merely with natural lighting. And a passive solar heating technique was applied to scores of blocks of apartments: windows are fixed at south verandas to keep warm their sunny aspects, and enhance the capacity for absorbing solar heat.
A children’s park, volleyball and badminton courts and a roller rink also went up in Ryomyong Street that covers an area of over 57 000m2 in total. And the street is decorated with tens of thousands of trees of over 50 species, and turf of over 100 000m2 .
Teachers and researchers of Kim Il Sung University and ordinary working people are enjoying a happy life in the Ryomyong Street built as the model and standard of modern architecture with the country’s own strength, technology and raw material.
Article: Yom Song Hui
