Back in Phnom Penh!

Sisko and Inari arrived to Phnom Penh last Wednesday. The construction of the center is going way slower than estimated; mostly because of daily rain and the challenging starting point. We will have to work hard and smart to keep up with the schedule to get the center's roof up before the heaviest rains in August, September and October. Luckily there will be more workers coming on site on Monday and we will be able to start working in teams which hopefully makes the work more pleasant and fun and also helps us to proceed in a faster pace.

Farewell / start up party

Just as we were getting ready to go back home to Finland with Tuuli, the site was getting ready for the actual construction work so we decided to have a party in Kouk Khleang to bring together the workers, community members and future users of the youth center. We handed out flyers and brought the scale model on site so people would be better informed of what was actually happening in their neighborhood. We had a great time eating, drinking and dancing. Thank you everyone who has been a part of this amazing experience so far and also to everyone who will continue to take part in the future!

Communication through scale models

When working with people with whom you don't have any common language, scale models are by far the best way to communicate your design. We have tried to use models as much as possible throughout our design process here in Cambodia and that process got one more mile stone in it when Tuuli and I took our 1/30 scale model to the site today. Everyone was thrilled and the workers were really excited when they started to realize where the building is going to sit on the site and where exactly all the bamboo parts they have been making are going to go.

A blessing ceremony at the site

Here in Cambodia it is customary to arrange a blessing ceremony for the building site before construction starts or "before digging the first hole" as our contacts told us. Foundation works are scheduled to start today so we organized the ceremony early this morning. Luckily there is an old priest living next to our site and he agreed on running the ceremony.

Measuring the bamboos

(Photo by Kevin Rowell)


A lot has happened during the past weeks on the site especially with the bamboos. During and after our two-week learning period with Kevin the work has progressed nicely. The last batch of bamboos are being prepared for treatment, the first batch has been almost completely turned into elements already and the rest are somewhere in between.

Kouk Khleang Youth Centre Project published in FuturArc - the Voice of Green Architecture in Asia - magazine vol 25!

Creative children around the site

(Photo by Kevin Rowell)

There are a lot of children in Cambodia and there are also many of them running around the community which we work in. Most of them, as children usually are, have been quite creative in finding ways to enjoy the changing situations at the site.

ASEAN People's Forum

In late March we got the chance to visit the ASEAN People's Forum that was organized here in Phnom Penh and Maude got to interview Somony from CVS during a meeting break.

Our photographer Montana visiting the site

During our project we are cooperating with a young local photographer Montana Rakz. He will be following the realization of the Kouk Khleang Youth Center during this year by visiting the site several times. Last week his first visit to the site took place and the results were terrific.

The site is finally flat

Ladies and gentlemen, our site has finally been completely filled just in time for the Khmer New Year Holidays this weekend. It took us eight weeks, lots of waiting, a pump, an excavator, cutting down some trees and about 300 truck loads of sand to get the whole thing filled. While emptying the site we didn't run into any corpses or such which we thought was possible considering the color and consistence of the matter in the pit. We did find a 1m long, black snake though. Next week we can finally start the foundation works for the Youth Center! Take a look back to what the site used to look like…