Thirty young urban planners who are in town for an international design contest are facing a challenge: Transforming the area around Boeng Kak lake into a bustling and modern commercial, residential and tourist center that is well-integrated with its surroundings and eliminates prostitution and drug trading.
And there’s one more thing: The design must absorb the 4,000 squatter families currently living along the lake in a fair and affordable manner.
“Between Metropolitan Centrality and Poverty Reduction” is the theme of this year’s Universite de Cergy-Pontoise urban design competition. Sponsored by the Paris-based university, the competition attracts recent design graduates from all over the world and takes place for several weeks once a year in Asia and in France.
Slums, which account for the majority of the 98-hectare area around the lake, in Daun Penh district’s Srah Chak commune and Tuol Kok district’s Boeng Kak I and Boeng Kak II communes, are the prime focus of the city officials who encouraged Universite de Cergy-Pontoise to use the site for the competition.
Municipal Cabinet Chief Mann Chhoeun, the first of many officials to brief participants on the socioeconomic needs and constraints of the area last week, urged against moving the squatters.
“It’s a complex matter to remove [the people of] Boeng Kak from Phnom Penh,” he said, noting that most residents, though poor, have successfully earned livelihoods in businesses there since 1993. “The city, particularly, would have to pay a large amount of money to find a new location for those squatters.” Mann Chhoeun recommended that students talk with the squatters.
The government currently advocates land-sharing agreements for squatter disputes, where sprawling communities are moved to on-site apartments. Officials hope that the participants’ cumulative experience with poverty housing on five continents will bring fresh perspective to the dilemma.
Mann Chhoeun also emphasized that the winning design plan should contain a solid sanitation infrastructure, be easily accessible and not threaten the city’s water supply, much of which comes from the southeast corner of the lake.
Following the competition, the municipality will have the difficult task of turning the winning design—or a cross-section of multiple designs—into reality.
But not all local land officials are convinced that the winning design will come to fruition.
“We’ll know more when we see the proposals next month,” said Paul Rabe, land management consultant for the Phnom Penh Poverty Reduction Program. “Right now, I’ve heard all kinds of plans, including redeveloping and filling in the lake entirely. Everything’s still possible.”
Still, government officials remain committed to redesigning the Boeng Kak area.
“The restructuring of Boeng Kak is a major priority for the municipality as an urban development project. We will do it,” said Phnom Penh Vice Governor Chev Kim Heng.
The project’s prospects improve with the investor opportunities that come with the competition’s international reputation. Investors have flocked to the competition’s past cities, including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Guangzhou, China.
“A good project is able to attract good money. We can make public spaces and solve problems for poor people,” said Jean-Claude Milak, competition director.
This year, only three Cambodian applicants submitted complete applications for the competition. Bunnarith Meng, Aunny Ieng and Bamnang Sar are representing Cambodia.
Participants are awarded a graduate-level degree in urban geography in connection with the contest from the University of Paris.
The opportunity to design a large-scale urban development is rare for young professionals. Between meetings with city officials and experts, participants will work nonstop in teams of six for three weeks to construct designs that fulfill the many requirements set by city officials and the realities of urban Phnom Penh. Normally, such a project should take a year to design, contest officials said.
