Check it out: 'The Architecture of the Capitol from 'The Hunger Games': Echoes of Rome, Echoes of Totalitarianism.' The following post in 'The Art of Film' – which I highly recommend reading – offers some compelling pictorial evidence of many parallels between the films' sets and the actual buildings (or proposed buildings) that typified the Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin eras – and, for that matter, how those latter totalitarian styles relate back to classical Roman architecture. The Hall of Justice Building as seen in the reaping scene of Catching Fire is a perfect example of this kind of 1930s-inspired civic structure.
If you watch the DVD extras for the first Hunger Games film, you will hear how the set designers consciously drew on the architecture historically favored by totalitarian states – Soviet and Nazi architecture, in particular – to convey the message that the government is huge, permanent, powerful, and unyielding, while the individual citizen is dwarfed and insignificant in its shadow.
