Cambodia's most famous contemporary architect,
Vann Molyvann first studied law in Cambodia, and then obtained one of five scholarships provided by wealthy Cambodians to pursue his studies in Paris. After one year of law, he switched to architecture at the School of Fine Arts in Paris (l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris with Le Corbusier) , and returned to Cambodia in 1955. In the 1950s and 1960s, Vann Molyvann designed some of the country's most famous structures &mdahs; from national theaters to Cambodian embassies abroad. Vann Molyvann became Phnom Penh's consulting architect in 1956 while serving as the country's urban-planning director. He served as minister of Culture, Fine Arts, Urban and Country Planning in 1993.
The Anatomy of a City Phnom Penh
Mr. Vann Molyvann's works
Chaktomuk Conference Hall, Vann Molyvann, 1961
By cambodiamuseum
This multi-functional conference hall designed by Vann Molyvann has recently been refitted and renovated to once again function for the purposes for which it was first constructed. This aesthetically pleasing fan-shaped hall topped with a traditional Khmer tower is sited close to the Royal Palace and hovers like a bird on the embankment overlooking the river junction at Chaktomuk.
Monument of Independence, Vann Molyvann, 1962
By cambodiamuseum
The monument that celebrates Cambodian independence in traditional Khmer prasat form with a refined sense of proportion, sits with an appropriate air of solemnity at the centre of a traffic circle at the junction of Sihanouk and Norodom boulevards. Designed by Vann Molyvann the delicacy of decoration echoes that of Banteay Srei temple in its soft pink granite-finished concrete forms.
The National Sports Complex: The Sports Palace,Phnom Penh. Vann Molyvann. 1964
By Remy Bertin, September 20, 2008
Originally built for the Southeast Asia Games in 1963, which were later canceled, the stadium became a political focal point for the country. Its very construction was a symbol of Cambodia's modernization and rise to international notice after independence, while it hosted political rallies that were impressive demonstrations of intense nationalism.
It follows, then, that Vann Molyvann would take this occasion to express most clearly his ideas for fashioning a distinctly Khmer style from the modern architecture he admired. The Khmer are proud of the ancient wats at Angkor, they are a ubiquitous symbol of national pride, present everywhere from the Cambodian flag to the label of the national beer. Vann drew his inspiration from these temples though not from its iconography but in its fundamentals. The complex's arrangement on an east-west axis mirrors the more symmetrical array of buildings at Angkor. Just as those temples were often surrounded by water, Vann used giant pools, or barays, to control water run-off and to recall the lake which was once present on the site. The outdoor stadium bleachers are built on great earthen mounds (you see the start of them to the left of the picture above) giving them a low-slung profile and making the sports palace itself the most prominent edifice on the site. The effect is, unfortunately, heavily diluted by surrounding development that was the result of the government selling off most of the land the stadium was sitting on. Where once you could get a clear view of the hill rising in the middle of the city, you can really only see it from inside the complex itself. From the street you see only the poorly conceived faux French colonial apartments that sit where the barays once did.
80,000 people can watch an event at the stadium. The Palace itself nests outdoor seating with the indoor stadium where boxing, basketball and volleyball events can be held. Despite there being few organized sporting events, these facilities are still being used today. Badminton players use the outdoor courts, the swimming and diving pool is teaming with jubilant kids, kites were being flown from the upper bleachers, and there were a few runners on the track. The stadium served a nation that changed drastically after the Khmer Rouge regime, one that exhibited a forward thinking which seems to no longer exist here. But when Phnom Penh was repopulated in 1979 doubtless these facilities, as well as others built as part of the New Khmer Architecture movement, served as invaluable benchmarks for regaining some sense of the society that was lost.
One Hundred Houses,Phnom Penh. Vann Molyvann. 1965
By Remy Bertin, September 9, 2008
Following this affecting experience I sought out the 100 Houses Development, located closer to Phnom Penh proper. This was a development of identical houses designed by Vann Molyvann for National Bank of Cambodia staff in 1965. Built of cast in place concrete and pre-fabricated components this was a first for Cambodia of a housing type which has become ubiquitous in suburban America, starting with Levittown. Mass-produced to identical specifications, the design drew from the vernacular with a raised floor and a distinctive roof shape that allowed for air circulation within. Vann Molyvann built the floors of the "wet" areas (the kitchen and bath) out of concrete. This gave the houses a life span far beyond their all-wood traditional counterparts, although most are now heavily modified and recognizable only by their roof lines. House 43, pictured to the left above, was the only one I found still in its original state.
I was stuck by the contrast with my earlier stop, how only a little over a decade after One Hundred Houses was built the social pact which provided this quality and comfortable mass-produced housing for bank workers was transformed so completely to the point where most of the trained workers who dwelled there were probably killed or driven out into the country side. Instead of seeding a continued effort toward modernization, the development now is an artifact representing only what might have been.
National Bank of Cambodia,Phnom Penh. Vann Molyvann. 1968
By Remy Bertin, September 18, 2008
Central Bank Branch in Sihanoukville, left, Staff Housing, right.
Sihanoukville, planned (if not executed) by Vann Molyvann, is also home to two of his better works. Perhaps because of their distance from the better known buildings in Phnom Penh, M. Vann's National Bank of Cambodia Branch and his St. Michel Church are not high on the Molyvann canon. However, they were well worth making the trip down south for.
Because the paper notes for Cambodian Currency were made in France and shipped over, it made sense to build the central bank branch for the Cambodia Bank close to the shipping ports. The story goes that when the Khmer Rouge took over the port they attempted to blow up the bank but could do nothing but damage the vaults. They had been designed too well, modeled after the construction of Swiss Banks. However, the blasting left the foundations unsound, and before the bank could be up and running again, extensive repairs had to be executed some time in 2000.
The most striking element of the bank is the huge roof top pergola, a sculpted form made from reinforced concrete. From the ground it looks like it is the roof of a set back upper story but in fact, characteristic of New Khmer, it is raised off of the actual roof of the building, protecting it from the sun and providing a shaded outdoor space accessible from the top floor. It is most probably the largest example of this kind of pergola in the country.
The bank is actually part of a complex of houses and apartments for bank workers. Here again we see Vann Molyvann incorporating traditional Khmer ways of living in a modern home. The exterior brick wall breaks down to become a screen where there is an interior courtyard. The expressive roof form slopes to a gutter that runs along the centerline of the house
If Architecture represents the triumph of man over wilderness, order over disorder, often it seems that in Cambodia the architecture gets lost in that battle. This is not true of the Bank Complex. Its buildings are composed of sharp geometries, its grounds carefully manicured, and sitting up on a hill overlooking the beach it could not be further from the motos buzzing Sihanoukville's streets. It was an oasis on a trip where often the senses are overloaded by stimuli.
Main building of Institute of Language, Vann Molyvann, 1972
By Remy Bertin
So as not to start at the end and give it all away, I will write about Vann Molyvann’s Teacher Training College on Russian Boulevard, his best and last work in Phnom Penh, in several parts. The building was actually inaugurated in 1972 after Vann Molyvann had already left the country for Switzerland, the home nation of his wife Trudy.
The influence of ancient Angkorian Temples is clear in the raised walkways, moats and Barays (pools of water) that cool while retaining storm water, and the monumental entry guarded by concrete Nagas. These buildings also give the clearest indication, however, of Le Corbusier's influence in Vann Molyvann's work (more on that later).
The buildings are now the Institute of Languages, part of the Royal University of Phnom Penh, which is kind of the Harvard of Cambodia. Class was in session when I visited, and it was absolutely packed with students. It made me wonder how these buildings survived the Khmer Rouge. I would say, without too much to go on, that more major school buildings have been recently demolished to make way for the heavy development along the Boulevard than during Pol Pot's rule from 1975-79. At least, I have heard of two that were demolished in the last two years. To be fair, many have been restored to their former glory as well.
Brick is the most common building material in the country. Easy to make, there are literally piles of it everywhere. While concrete was also commonly used by the 50's, it was the influence of international engineers that would help raise its use in construction to an art form over the course of the development of the New Khmer style. Still, Vann uses brick liberally here, paying homage to a traditional building material while adding a contrasting element to the concrete that helps also to tie all of the wildly different buildings in the Institute together.
The main building, pictured above, is a striking composition of near Brutalist form. Each floor overhangs the one below, giving the building incredible weight, and creating strong shadow lines. The practical purpose is to provide shade for the windows below. Its surface is heavily carved by the big reveals at the louvered openings between brick panels and the vertical louvers that march across the facade in a composition that alternates from one floor to the other. The honey-combed reinforced concrete roof allows for ventilation of the interior spaces, primarily the cavernous interior hall at the heart of the building. Within the hall a grand scissor stair provides circulation to the three levels above, while a big study room carved out of the second floor provides indirect light to the interior.
In addition to this main building, the institute is made up of a bar of small lecture halls and a library which looks a bit like the orphaned volume knob of a stereo. Each will get its own installment.
Library of Institute of Language, Vann Molyvann, 1972
By Remy Bertin, September 2008
This is the embodiment of the idea that the structure become integral to the look of the building, as here the columns are ribs that ring the exterior, with the glazing layer set inside from them. The ground floor is mostly offices set into the core of the circular building, with a curving stair that runs along the inside face up to the second level which houses the library. The ceiling is as sculpted as the exterior structure, allowing you to understand the radial roof form which is imperceptible from the outside. Van Molyvann intended that you could enter the library directly from the second level catwalks that ring the campus, but the entrance which is pictured above is now kept locked. It's a good thing, as the entry sequence, from the darker and more confined lobby and stair up to the light-filled and airy reading room is effective.
Vann Molyvann himself has said that he based the design of the Library on a traditional Khmer straw hat. This sounds suspiciously like post-rationalization to me and his architecture doesn't need to be rationalized; it stands as a work of art on its own. This work, in particular, is singular. There aren't any "typical" New Khmer Architecture details, any real references to the stuff that was being built in the city in the 1950s and 60s, or as far as my untrained eye can see any overt references to the ancient temples. For one of his final buildings in Phnom Penh, Vann Molyvann took his ideas to another level and offered clues to the direction he might have taken had he been able to continue his career in this country.
The Lab building of Institute of Language, Vann Molyvann, 1972
By Remy Bertin, September, 2008
This complex of classrooms represent the culmination of the ideas explored during Vann Molyvann's career. Material, structure and light all collaborate perfectly toward the execution of striking form that performs its function wonderfully. The four classroom pods are suspended on canted piloti which somehow make the structure simultaneously static and dynamic. They balance the sloping floor which supports the stepped seating, while giving the building a coiled, animalistic energy.
The classrooms themselves are studies in how to make a space that perfectly lends itself to focused study. They are relatively small, probably able to accommodate about 35 students. The vertically louvered sidewalls glow with natural light while blocking the view to outside distractions. The glazing itself is constructed of operable louvers, allowing for the room to be naturally ventilated. The light cannons at the roof, similar to those in the main building, once focused the light onto each lab desk. But when the function of the rooms changed a false ceiling was installed allowing for florescent lights and ceiling fans. That's progress. I should note that no lights were on while I was there, but despite M. Vann confounding direct sunlight at every turn, each space was lit perfectly to compliment its use.
The classrooms are connected by a hallway which has a masonry screen wall on one side that is unglazed and open to the air. Opposite the pods, the hall is lined with more conventional classroom spaces. Still, they are lit by a louvered wall and skylights which employ sculptural concrete sunscreens to reflect the sunlight to the interior. These reminded me of the technique Renzo Piano used at his Cy Twombly Gallery in Houston, some 25 years later.
The complex of buildings at the Teacher Training College are composed around a central courtyard. Sitting within it is a beautiful old tree with an incredibly wide canopy that drips with Spanish Moss. I think that the tree has to be older than the 35 year old campus, meaning that the buildings were composed around it. The lesson here, working with the existing to make a meaningful place, doesn't need to be spelled out. But it is a lesson that those currently building Cambodia need to learn.
Important buildings
Phnom Penh
Battambang
Source: wikipedia