The overall goal of the Build4People project is to achieve a transformative shift in the current development path of the city of Phnom Penh towards more sustainability and a higher quality of life. To this end, the building sector will be the starting point for research.
It has recently become more and more apparent that sustainable urban transformation is by no means just a technological challenge, but above all also a social, cultural, economic and political challenge. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly clear that science can only work out implementation-oriented solutions for sustainable urban development together in a dialogue with urban society.
Based on this transdisciplinary understanding of the problem, the Build4People project tries to integrate various disciplines such as environmental psychology, civil engineering, urban planning, architecture, urban climatology, remote sensing and human geography in a cross-cutting manner using common participatory formats such as urban living labs or incubators for sustainable business models with local stakeholders from politics, business and civil society to jointly develop practical knowledge and interventions, which should ultimately lead to the implementation of inclusive sustainable urban development processes.
In general, our activities will support the gradual shift from a planning culture – which so far has been rather technocratic and just based almost exclusively on issuing static plans in a top-down manner – to a planning culture in which urban planning is more integrated, people-led and understood as a process and continuous dialogue involving a broad spectrum of actors from government, civil society and the private sector in the development and implementation of strategies.
Research will be carried out together with the most important local universities. Implementation will be done with the Phnom Penh Capital Administration and its lower level of administration. As socio-spatial units, we focus on neighbourhoods which we regard as a suitable scale of intervention for integrated planning and packages of measures for sustainable urban (re-)development. Among others, will explore and apply innovative methodologies of collaborative and participatory planning in the context of an Ecocity Transition Lab process on based on an identified case study site at the urban-rural fringe representing problems typical for current urban development issues in Phnom Penh. Based on this, urban sustainability criteria and strategies will get co-designed.
The common link of our scientific-conceptional, analytical and normative dimension is the urban quality of life, which we consider to be the general foundation for our people-driven approach. Our team considers the notion of urban quality of life to be a multiple-dimensional concept that brings together physical, psychological, social and ecological aspects and takes into account both subjectively perceived well-being and objective conditions. As part of our research we jointly conceptualize, measure, and model urban quality of life and also consider its political dimension and its often ambiguous relationship to sustainability.
Locally established multipliers such as the European Chamber of Commerce (EuroCham), the Centre for Khmer Studies (CKS) or Impact Hub Phnom Penh support the dissemination of our approaches.
The Build4People project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The project consortium on the German side consists of four universities and two companies. Consortium leader is the University of Hamburg, Department of Geography.
A Scientific Advisory Board counsels us with regards to the research process, implementation and impact management. It also ensures that our measures are demand-driven and adapted to the local context.
Members of the Scientific Advisory Board during the Build4People Research and Development phase (2021-2025) are:
- Mélanie Mossard, Impact Hub Phnom Penh
- Prof. emr. Dipl. Ing. Detlef Kammeier, Independent Consultant
- Andéol Cadin, Chairperson of Green Business Committee of the European Chamber of Commerce (EuroCham), Cambodia
- Michel Cassagnes, Chairperson of the Real Estate & Construction Committee of the European Chamber of Commerce (EuroCham), Cambodia
- Dr. Stephan Anders, Director DGNB Certification – German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB)
- Dr. Eduardo Noboa, RISE Cities Programme at BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt
Members of the Scientific Advisory Board during the Build4People Definition phase (2019-2021) have been:
- Dr. Dipl.-Ing. Stephan Anders, German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB)
- Dr. Philine Gaffron, Technical University Hamburg
- Prof. emr. Dipl. Ing. Detlef Kammeier, Independent Consultant
- Dipl.-Ing. Walter Koditek, Independent Consultant
- Ralf Symann, MISEREOR Myanmar
- Andéol Cadin, Chairperson of Green Business Committee of the European Chamber of Commerce (EuroCham), Cambodia
- Michel Cassagnes, Chairperson of the Real Estate & Construction Committee of the European Chamber of Commerce (EuroCham), Cambodia
Timeline & Activities
Definition Phase (2019-2021)
The 18-month Definition phase consolidated the working structures and served to refine the scientific approaches within our team, with an innovative mix of sectoral, methodological and regional expertise including environmental psychology, human geography, architecture, civil engineering, urban planning, remote sensing and urban climatology. It also served to deepen the cooperation with our local research partners – recognized universities in Cambodia such as the Royal University of Phnom Penh, the Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia and the Faculty of Land Management of the Royal University of Agriculture.
At the level of action research, the most important event was the first Build4People Ecocity Transition Lab (ECTL) held together with our primary implementation partner, the Phnom Penh Capital Administration in March 2020 (extensively documented at our website). It became clear that such a lab is an adequate instrument for gaining insights into the local planning system, collecting data, framing problems and implementing participatory approaches. The ECTL involved state officials from the national, municipal, and district levels and partners from the private sector as well as from other educational institutions in a peer-to-peer dialogue on issues of sustainability. In a very effective and compact way, this collaborative methodology supported the development of an initial integrated masterplan approach and related sustainability concepts, which are based both on local needs and high sustainability aspirations. Another key outcome of the one-week ECTL was that the leading representatives of Phnom Penh Capital Administration fully grasped B4P‘s approach towards integrated urban development, gained ownership and expressed their firm intention to cooperate with us during the upcoming RD phase. Last but not least, it also proved to be an excellent learning tool for the transdisciplinary integration of scientific expertise from all Work Packages based on a case study involving current real-life problems.
The trans-disciplinarily developed Build4People products, such as the 1st edition of the touring exhibition “Green Buildings and Sustainable Neighbourhoods” (link to Khmer language edition of Build4People exhibition) or the results of our surveys on urban quality of life, will be presented at several dissemination events. Intensive public relations campaigns, mainly via social media, will be launched parallel to all activities.
Research & Development Phase (2021-2025)
The overall aim of the Build4People project’s four-year Research and Development phase (RD phase) is to support and analyse a transformative shift in Phnom Penh’s current business-as-usual urban development pathway towards a pathway with higher sustainability and liveability levels. For this purpose, the building sector will be used as the entrance point of the research.
Urban transition scholars have highlighted that such a sustainable urban transformation is not only a technological challenge, but also a social, cultural, economic and political one. To contribute to an understanding of the challenges and to simultaneously address these, the Build4People team will combine societal and scientific problem-based analytical research with transdisciplinary action research approaches. These aim to (i) understand and support possible transition pathways, barriers and drivers, and to (ii) align support of transformational change in the behavioural, environmental, technical and policy dimensions.
To achieve this, we facilitate collaborative planning workshops (e.g. Eco City Transition Lab), strategic niche management ap-proaches (e.g. Sustainable Building Incubator), transitional management approaches (e.g. Sustainable Building Arena) and subsequent experimental implementation (see figure below).
All of these steps will generate actionable knowledge for local stakeholders and a basis for data-driven evidence-based decision-making. Finally, the application within action research processes shall also lead to (re-)integration of created knowledge and subsequent refinement of theory.
The integrating link of our scientific-conceptional, analytical and normative dimension is the urban quality of life, which we consider to be the general foundation for our people-driven approach. We will therefore jointly conceptualize, measure, and model urban quality of life and also critically consider its political dimension and ambiguous relationship to sustainability. We will approach urban quality of life in two ways: based on an analytic research approach that enquires about the relative impact of different objective and subjective factors on urban quality of life, and a more normative approach that understands sustainable transformation as an essential prerequisite for urban quality of life. Finally, a multi-dimensional urban quality of life is also regarded as a linking factor when considering each level: the individual; the household; the building; the neighbourhood; the city.
Throughout the RD phase, cross-cutting input will be given to capacity building with a focus on curriculum development support among our research partners. This offers the opportunity to feed in our refined research findings with a lasting impact and also serves as another transdisciplinary instrument to compile and connect results from all Work Packages.
We will co-design urban sustainability criteria and strategies based on an identified case study site at the urban-rural fringe of Phnom Penh. The transdisciplinary research process will be connected to (a) national-level policymaking processes through B4P’s membership in the inter-ministerial sector Technical Working Groups on Green Buildings and Sustainable Cities, (b) transnational initiatives through a regional technical roadmap as a localized part of UNEP‘s global road-mapping activities, and (c) the local start-up scene through the Sustainable Building Incubator. Our results will be further disseminated through tangible knowledge products such as a toolbox, a handbook or several exhibitions reaching out to different target groups via locally established multipliers.
Implementation Phase (2025-2027)
During the Implementation phase the Build4People project will tackle the so called Twin Transformation of digitalization and sustainability. Thereby we aim to use the potential of digitalization to promote participatory, inclusive and sustainable urban transformation by supporting the Phnom Penh municipality (PPCH) to connect its existing green and smart city strategies.
In this context B4P will build upon its most successful transdisciplinary transformative format of the RD phase and facilitate the implementation of the so-called PPCH Transformation Toolbox. During RD phase a toolbox prototype has already been developed as a tangible integrative output of the Ecocity Transition Labs (ECTL) series conducted in 2022, 2023, 2024 to foster innovative practices and alternative visions with PPCH and local developer companies within a collective learning system. The ECTL particularly served to test locally adapted criteria, guidelines and strategies of sustainable neighbourhood development with the aims of reducing environmental costs, increasing urban resilience, and making sustainability measurable as well as on a more general level of strengthening the implementation power and regulatory role of PPCH.
During Implementation phase Build4People will facilitate the toolbox implementation as a comprehensive digital planning instrument and as inter-active online information-, public participation-, technology-, and learning platform that enables evidence-based data driven decisions towards sustainability and enhanced quality of life.
Another participatory tool the prototype of which has also been developed during RD phase is the so-called PPCH Citizen Science App: It empowers urban citizens to assess the urban built environment in regard of various aspects of quality of life using a mobile device with the potential to publish the results at an online map dashboard. During the Implementation phase the App will be further developed into a comprehensive tool for data-driven participation and an inter-active communication platform between the city government and the urban citizens.
Implementation will happen during four distinct phases, i) exploration, ii) testing iii) comprehensive implementation, and iv) expansion and scaling-up. It will get complemented by a) two B4P Transition Manufactories as integrated one-week workshops to test and to apply the innovative planning tools in regard of specific neighbourhoods in Phnom Penh b) Train-the-Trainer sessions – both to empower the stakeholders with technical and implementation knowledge, c) Multi-Stakeholder Policy Dialogue Workshops to establish the digital tools within the national governance framework and to replicate them to other Cambodian cities (with already confirmed dissemination perspective to secondary cities by UN-Habitat Cambodia) to empower the stakeholders with procedural and dissemination competencies, d) the infusion of the collective transformative knowledge to the curricula of partner universities as long-term impact.
After the end of the BMBF funding, the further operation of both Build4People products shall be taken over by the newly founded Phnom Penh Smart City Hub belonging to PPCH. During the IMP phase it will receive support from CityLAB Berlin under supervision of B4P. The envisaged activities are demand-driven and were specified during a recent delegation visit of our Cambodian partners to Germany including a Proposal Writing Studio as well as site visits to good-practice examples of sustainable urban development and experts talks, e.g. at CityLAB Berlin.
Finally, an overall aim of the IMP phase is a formative accompanying process evaluation of the implementation of the B4P products as digital participatory tools of an inclusive, sustainability-oriented planning process with the aim to optimize ongoing activities, to promote replicability and ultimately to achieve lasting transformative learning effects.
