Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, was destroyed during the Korean War. It was rebuilt with Soviet aid, which transformed the city’s skyline into a Socialist Classical architectural wonder, with unique touches inspired by Asian culture. French photographer Raphael Olivier, who we learned about on Curbed, spent time in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for an architecture tour and became fascinated with the city’s “powerful energy of harshness, strength, resilience and pride, largely emphasized by the general monolithic use of raw concrete.” He documented the Soviet-style buildings that were erected during the ‘60s and ‘70s. “This was my personal attempt to showcase one the most unknown and isolated cities in the world under certain specific given conditions,” Olivier writes in an essay on Dezeen. See more in our gallery.