Prime Minister Hun Sen’s plans to see Phnom Penh’s low-rise skyline punctured with high-rise buildings was greeted with praise, criticism and words of caution by urban planners and architects.
“If people build the skyscraper or tall building without the master plan, it will be a massive problem like in Siem Reap town today,” said renowned Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann, who
designed Olympic Stadium, Independence Monument and the Royal University of Phnom Penh.
“Anyone who wants to build tall buildings in Phnom Penh today must respond to many, many conditions,” Vann Molyvann said on Wednesday.
Blaming unidentified conservationists for hindering Phnom Penh’s urban development, Hun Sen told reporters on Tuesday that he would present medals to the businessmen who build the highest buildings.
Calling for Southeast Asia’s tallest towers to be constructed in Phnom Penh, Hun Sen said such projects should be allowed anywhere in the city.
A long-standing ban on buildings higher than four stories has been haphazardly followed in the vicinity of the Royal Palace and Wat Phnom. The above-regulation height of the new Naga casino, the MiCasa hotel-apartments and the Hotel Cambodiana have been criticized by parliamentarians.
But Hun Sen’s latest comments indicate his new plans for a metropolis-style Phnom Penh.
But technical difficulties abound for building skyscrapers in the city. The soil-type under Phnom Penh requires very deep foundations. And supplying water, electricity and sewage infrastructure for densely populated, high-rise buildings would present a problem for Phnom Penh’s already challenged urban infrastructure.
Vann Molyvann said he wasn’t totally against the idea of towers in Phnom Penh, so long as builders select the right area.
Such projects should be located an appropriate distance from Independence Monument, the Royal Palace and Wat Phnom, he said.
“Investors or the government can build the skyscraper, but they must have a very high responsibility,” he added.
Helen Grant Ross, an architect, urbanist and the author of one book on architecture in Battambang town and the co-author of a soon-to-be-published work on architecture in Phnom Penh between 1953 and 1970, said tall buildings would ruin the capital’s unique personality.
“Instead of trying to be another ordinary Asian town, like Bangkok or [Kuala Lumpur], Cambodia should try to develop its capital with its own specific qualities,” she said.
“Hun Sen’s comments, to me, denote a total lack of recognition for the beautiful urban and architectural heritage, both colonial and Sangkum era,” she said.
“Skyscrapers galore will not solve any of the real problems facing Phnom Penh…. Who are skyscrapers for? They are not for housing are they? They are not for the people who really need the city to expand…. Skyscrapers are for rich businessmen.”
Grant Ross also warned that when people build higher, the value of land gets higher too. Inflationary pressure on land in the city would touch all and make it harder for the municipality to provide low-cost housing for the urban poor.
But if skyscrapers are to be built, they should be built in specially zoned areas that would have the lowest impact on the existing environment, she added.
But others are not so cautious. Chhay Rithysen, director of the municipality’s Bureau of Urban Affairs, said the prime minister’s plans visionary.
“I totally agree with Prime Minister Hun Sen. We should not stop developing the city. We have worked so hard since the city looked like a city of ghosts,” Chhay Rithysen said.
He said there was no reason not to build skyscrapers, although builders should not be allowed to construct them close to the Royal Palace and airport.
“A city needs to keep the old style of construction and have the new style of construction. I believe that building skyscrapers will attract investment and tourists,” he added.
Eric Huybrechts, director of the French-government backed Cambodian Urban Development Project and counselor to the governor of Phnom Penh, said on Wednesday that since the mid-1990s regional investors have proposed plans for skyscrapers in Phnom Penh.
If the government decides to go ahead with those projects, they should at least be the product of the highest international architectural standards, he said.
The concern is that most investors will probably want to place their investment in Phnom Penh’s business and tourism center, in Daun Penh district, the area stretching roughly from Hun Sen park to Wat Phnom.
This is also the area that contains the most historic buildings, he added.
