For 10 days, architect, photographer, and architecture and design critic for The Guardian,Oliver Wainwright, traveled to Pyongyang, North Korea where he got tours inside buildings, with permission to photograph.
"Having been told that photography would be strictly monitored by the official guides, I was pleasantly surprised by the freedom we were given to shoot pretty much anything we wanted," Wainwright told Business Insider. "The only restrictions were on building sites — they like everything to look finished it's photographed — as well as anything connected to the military, and people at work."
He visited hotels, health and recreation centers, study houses, and more. Ahead, see rare photos inside North Korea's buildings.
SEE ALSO: 13 rare color photos that show a side of the Vietnam War you don't usually see
Wainwright was on an official guided tour organized by a Beijing-based company, Koryo tours, that has been taking foreigners into North Korea for over 20 years.
Wainwright said it took months of negotiation before North Korea allowed him to join the tour because "journalists aren't given the same freedom as tourists," he said.
"I have never been anywhere where a national ideology is so totally embodied in the architectural fabric of the city," Wainwright said. "To see the urban fabric, from the layout of streets to the specific design of interiors, expressing the values and ambitions of such an ideologically-driven regime was a fascinating thing to behold."
See the rest of the story at Business Insider