AsiaLIFE

Drawing together international and Cambodian architecture students, a new workshop tackles Phnom Penh’s major urban challenges. Mai Lynn Miller Nguyen catches up with its organisers.

Who has a right to the city? How is current urban development addressing the needs of the citizens? How can architecture make a difference? These are key questions confronted in the student workshop, A City for All, set for early March. Hosted by Cambodian urban NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), the workshop brings together international and local architecture students to discuss Phnom Penh’s urban landscape, as well as work towards creating equitable, sustainable solutions.

From an ongoing collaboration between STT, Cambodian universities, and Aalto University, Finland, this year’s workshop is the fourth of its kind. Building on dialogue from previous years, the workshop promotes the concept of activist architecture.

“An architect can do so much more than simply design buildings on demand,” says Eva Lloyd, an Australian architect and one of the workshop’s organisers. “Through the workshop, we try to encourage the new generation of students to understand the socially responsive role that architects can play in the development of cities.”

Enter the New Generation

STT has invited second and third year students from Phnom Penh-based architecture schools at Limkokwing, Pannasastra, Cambodian Mekong and Norton universities, as well as the Royal University of Fine Arts. Fifteen students will be chosen to participate, joined by fifteen international students from Aalto University.

The workshop stems from STT’s Youth Project, which strives to raise awareness amongst students and young professionals about urban issues. This previous autumn, STT presented a series of lectures, bringing professionals to address local architecture students. Entitled ‘A Right to the City’, the lecture programme questioned the broad notion of urban development, particularly as practiced in Cambodia’s capital.

“The theme of the lecture series, and now also the workshop, emerged from the ongoing relocations and sometimes forced evictions of urban poor communities from the centre of Phnom Penh to its outskirts,” says Clarisa Diaz, an American architect and workshop organiser from STT.

Greater Perspective

“There seems to be very little interest on the part of architects and planners to address the needs of those who are marginalised and do not have political and economic power,” says Humphrey Kalanje, a teacher at Aalto University. Concerned by the current angle of urban development as pursued in Phnom Penh, Kalanje stresses the importance of considering stakeholders from a wide spectrum. “I think there is a general lack of appreciation of what Phnom Penh can—and should—offer to every citizen of the city. Architecture and planning should be relevant to all and not just the blessed few.”

Students will visit several sites of interest, traversing Phnom Penh’s past, present and future in architecture. Fieldtrips will include tours of modern Khmer architecture from the 1960s, Phnom Penh’s tallest building, the Canadia Bank Tower, and projects currently in construction, such as the anticipated CamKo satellite city. A trip to the central slum known as the Building as well as eviction and relocation sites will highlight circumstances faced by the urban poor.

Recalling past workshops, Kalanje finds that the experience widens the perspective of the international students. Though lectures and coursework at Aalto explore the Cambodian context, firsthand exposure has greater impact. “For most of them, it was an eye-opener to issues that they had never realised existed before,” he explains.

Cambodian students will interact with students educated in Finland, a country praised for its progressive, socially conscious urban planning schemes. By bringing international students and Cambodian students to work together, the workshop serves as a point of cross-cultural exchange.

“It is not a one-way path to positive national or global development, it is a field of paths in which we cross, exchange, and learn from,” says Diaz.

Culminating in a competition, the workshop offers students the opportunity to share their visions for Phnom Penh. Participants will partner with local organisations, collaborating to devise design-based solutions to challenges facing the city. This year’s workshop centres on creating public buildings that can integrate existing communities.

On Mar. 10, teams will present their projects at the Royal University of Fine Arts. A jury composed of professionals involved in urban planning, architecture, and community work will determine the most viable concept. Projects will be exhibited for the public, allowing members of the greater community the chance to view their proposals.

Beyond the Classroom

Organisers hope to present plans to local and international urban forums, provoking discourse among those shaping development efforts and perhaps sparking eventual change. Student participants may one day be in the position to make change a reality, incorporating insight gained in the workshop.

“Local students who have participated in the past have later gone on to become active in the urban sector debate in Phnom Penh, while others who go on to other things are likely to have lasting impressions of having visited a relocation site or an urban poor community—something few local students have ever done,” says Chiv Chanmaly, another organiser from STT.

Though greater policy changes may not be in the immediate future, previous workshops are already having meaningful outcomes in the present. Last year, participants constructed a house for a family in the Trapeang Krasang relocation site, funded by Habitat for Humanity. The design was selected from the competition, providing an example of affordable housing for the urban poor. Two additional projects initiated last year are currently seeking funding.

For further information, visit: teangtnaut.org.