Samaki 271 Community Hall

On monday 18.7. Mr. Seng from STT took us all to visit the new community hall of the Samaki 271 Community which is right next to Kork Kleang. The community hall is meant to be used by the surrounding residents as a place for meetings, gatherings, celebrations and for example as a place to do crafts.

The project was started by architecture students from the Tokyo University of Science in Japan together with students from the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA) here in Phnom Penh. All construction work has been carried out by the students together with the community members.

One can clearly see that some of the solutions haven't been completely thought through and it has been more important to empower the community members than to get a perfect result. The students have decided to use bamboo without any protection against insects and the weather so even though the building is only one year old, the bamboo parts used as decoration have already suffered badly. Despite the rough look of the project the site is still worth a visit for the nice communal attempt as well as the nice, green, shaded front yard of the hall.