The battle for the White Building began in September when the governor of Phnom Penh declared the structure unsafe and called for its demolition. Lu Ban Hap, a protégé of Vann Molyvann, designed the building in 1963 and christened it the Bassac Municipal Apartments. The building stands as a high mark in Cambodian architecture, and along with other buildings and monuments of the era, has come to represent the remarkable transformation the country underwent during the 1950s and 1960s under King Norodom Sihanouk. Yet like so much of the city’s Golden Era architecture, the White Building now faces the threat of development. As pressure grows between building residents, city leaders and commercial developers, the future of Lu Ban Hap’s apartments has never been more uncertain. Pen Sereypagna, an architect and urbanist, has spent considerable time in recent years uncovering the stories hidden behind the dilapidated building’s walls. His research will serve as the starting point for a series of conversations this weekend, with group discussions hosted by an international panel of architects, artists and academics. What they hope to achieve remains uncertain, but there is no underestimating the height of the stakes for those involved.
WHO: Artists, researchers, citizens
WHAT: Time, Space, Voice: Phnom Penh’s White Building
WHERE: Bophana Centre, #64 Street 200
WHEN: January 9, 12:30-5:30pm, January 10, 9:30am-1pm
WHY: Intelligence is sexy; activism is sexier