The horror of the Killing Fields, where from 1975 to 1979 almost two millions people were murdered, has left an indelible mark on Cambodia and on her capital city Phnom Penh. The takeover of the Khmer Rouge, the radical Maoist group responsible for the massacre, put an end to King Sihanouk dream of a new capital for a renewed country that he was building with help of young architects as Vann Molyvann. Isolated and ripped apart from war Cambodia missed the Asian economic boom that swept the...
more »The horror of the Killing Fields, where from 1975 to 1979 almost two millions people were murdered, has left an indelible mark on Cambodia and on her capital city Phnom Penh. The takeover of the Khmer Rouge, the radical Maoist group responsible for the massacre, put an end to King Sihanouk dream of a new capital for a renewed country that he was building with help of young architects as Vann Molyvann. Isolated and ripped apart from war Cambodia missed the Asian economic boom that swept the region and inspired the reshaping of many cities skyline. Phnom Penh 's eclectic architecture was spared. The result is a stock of colonial relics and an array of indigenous structures known as New Cambodian Architecture. Some of this buildings are slowly deteriorating under the pressure of the tenants or 'squatters' who live in them. Thousand of squatters live in roof-top shantytown or in dilapidated multiple-occupancy buildings in the center of the city. In 1979 when Phnom Penh's population returned after being moved out of the city at gun-point by the Khmer Rouge, everyone was a squatter. Families occupied whatever buildings they could find in a completely chaotic way and have stayed to this day..The main building of the Institute of Foreign Languages, Vann Molyvann's most complex and interesting work..
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