ចាស់ និងក្មេង . ON

“ON” is a combination of two words, OLD + NEW.

OLD refers to the old buildings in Cambodia, from the French colonial era up to modern Khmer architecture from the 1950s to 1970s, during the late master Vann Molyvann period. And NEW represents the new generation.

The capital city Phnom Penh experienced a largely flat, horizontal landscape until the first tall, vertical structures appeared around 2000. Over the last decade, Cambodia has been transforming. A lot of construction of new buildings has taken place and skyscrapers have arrived in downtown Phnom Penh. Yet this growth also places existing historical and beloved buildings under the threat of destruction. Out of personal concern, in 2010 I began working with urban youth born after 1979 to explore this tension between old and new. I wanted to show that even though we are part of the new generation, we are surrounded by old buildings from our parents and grandparents’ eras. These buildings can tell us a lot of stories. Many contributed to each building: architects, engineers, construction workers and the people who passed through or had experiences within the building. Demolishing heritage buildings is easy, but once destroyed, they are gone forever.

“Destroying old buildings is like silencing our elders”

Phnom Penh 2010