Page 72 - NU Newsletter 2022

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ហេ�តុុអ្វីី� វណ្ណណ ម៉ូូ�លី � � វណ្ណណ លី ្បី ?
Architectural Explorations

បិតាស្ថាបតយកម្មខ្មរ
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Born in Ream, Kampot Province in 1926, Vann tion. 6 With a formidable project team ---Gerald ed understanding of the region’s historic flood
Molyvann still resides in the house he designed Hanning, Vladimir Bodiansky, Vladimir Kan- patterns, included the foresighted division of
in c. 1966, set on the bustling Mao Tse Tung darouff, Um Samuth and Khoun Khun-Neay-
Boulevard in Phnom Penh.1 It’s difficult, he --a suite of functional, beautifully understated
says, to sit and watch the destruction of his ‘chil- public buildings emerged, reinforcing the needs,
dren’2—an expansive and recently threatened both physically and psychologically, of a young
repertoire of state, civic and private projects few independent Cambodia. Works spanned the
architects can match. He has lived an exception- gamut from modest nut practical housing, light
al life--- honored by royal patronage at a young factories, public and civic venues, state admin-
istrative offices as well as broader infrastructural
and urban initiatives, monuments and gathering
spaces. This heady mix was supplemented by
personal projects under the direction of Prince
Norodom Sihanouk, Head of State. Yet regard-
less of audience, intrinsic to Vann’s dynam- Phnom Penh into three---‘the old city,’ ‘new
ic formalism was the revised mode of modern sectors’ and ‘zones under development.’ In
Khmer urban sensibility with which he imbued subsequent years, Vann would go on to create
every project---the spatial impacts of airflow,7 a or oversee over seventy architectural projects
bonding and respect for land and water and the principally in the capital, many providing visual
integration of guiding principles behind Khmer landmarks that still define the city. Completed in
vernacular dwelling. Such sensibilities owe fur- an amazingly brief 14 years between 1957 and
ther credence to the creation of ‘Srok Khmer’, a 1971, the projects range from monumental ur-
age and widely responsible for the post-inde- semi-mystical telling of the Khmer land which ban foci to bold civic and state endeavors such
pendence urban panning of Cambodia’s capital appeared as the waters receded, the spirits and as the National Sports Complex.
city---Vann Molyvann’s legacy is synonymous gods who nhabit this land and the rivers which
with ‘New Khmer Architecture,’ the unique for- provide for the sustenance of its people.
mulation of modernism and tropical architecture Simultaneous to Cambodia’s modern rise, re-
he launched in the early 1960s. gional political stability deteriorated during
Perhaps hinting toward Vann’s later life influ- these same years. By 1970, in the aftermath to
ences, he was educated in Paris at the Ecole Na- U.S. bombing campaigns along the Cambo-
tionale Superieure Though immersed in Europe- dia-Vietnam border, the Cambodia National As-
an classical traditions, Vann was simultaneously sembly had deposed Sihanouk and positioned
exposed to the work of Corbusier, Rudolph, Lon Nol as provisional Head of State. Having
Wright and others figures who, he notes himself, ushered his wife and children safely to Europe,
provided great inspiration. With such exposure, Vann was to quietly depart Cambodia in 1971
in particular to that of ‘Le Modulor,’3 Vann under the pretext of an international meeting. A
would later interpolate the measurements and dark period was descending.
ratios of Corbusier’s famed proportional system
with those of the Ankorian temples, 4 their in- In 1962, plans devised by Vann, acting as head

tricate water management schemes and overall of Urban Planning, and guided by a sophisticat-
climactic sensitivity, forming the basis of a de-
sign methodology carried consistently through-
out his buildings.
Upon completing his studies and receiving his
French architectural diploma (d.p.l.g.) and Brit-
ish Architect’s Association (d.a.a.) 5 equivalent,
Vann returned to Cambodia in 1956. By 1957,
at the age of 31, he had been appointed Chief
Architect for state buildings and head of the Ur-
ban Planning and Housing Department of the
Ministry of Public Works and Telecommunica-
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