North Korean Interiors Mirror Wes Anderson Film Sets

British architect and design critic Olivier Wainwright created a Tumblr titled North Korean Interiors after having visited the isolated country over the summer. While there, he noticed striking similarities between the Soviet-era interior design–from the National Drama Theater to locker rooms and even Wes Anderson film sets. Both heavily incorporate axial symmetry and pastel colors, which Wainwright aptly describes as “kindergarten kitsch.”

Unfortunately for North Korea, the aesthetic is mired with a mandate from the government to portray a facade of carefree prosperity. “These new spaces look like they have been assembled from crisp, unreal planes of colour and exude an anaesthetising aesthetic, candy-coloured decoys that distract from a reality of mass poverty across the country” says Wainwright. The Hermit Kingdom has recently started replacing marble mosaics and wood flooring with more synthetic and minimal designs in an attempt to modernize itself. To see the rest of the photos, visit Wainwright’s Tumblr.