Build4People

Build4People is thrilled to announce a new poster exhibition providing comprehensive insights into the most successful transdisciplinary transformative format of the four-year Research & Development phase (2021-2025), the Build4People Ecocity Transition Labs series.

The Build4People Ecocity Transition Labs series was conducted in 2022, 2023, and 2024 based on an existing urban site in Phnom Penh to foster pioneering practices and alternative visions within a collective learning system through an innovative stakeholder alliance in-between the Phnom Penh City Administration, major local developer companies, local civil society organizations, internationally donor funded projects and representatives of various disciplines of local academia.

In cooperation with the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB), the Build4People Ecocity Transition Labs 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 Phnom Penh City Administration.

A tangible outcome of these efforts has been the prototype development of the so called B4P Transformation Toolbox. Its components such as design and planning guidelines (e.g. on “Integrated Urban Design”, “Blue-Green Infrastructure”, “Governance and Participation”, etc.) support the implementation of technical criteria with minimum requirements for sustainable neighbourhood development. The target groups of the B4P Transformation Toolbox are primarily members of the city administration, project developers and planners, but also universities and, last but not least, the interested public.

During the upcoming Implementation phase (2025-2027), Build4People will facilitate the B4P Transformation 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.

The curator of the Build4People Poster Exhibition 2025 about the Build4People Ecocity Transition Labs series is the Build4People Work Package partner Eble Messerschmidt Partner Architects and Urban Planners PartGmbB, based in Tübingen, Germany.

All exhibition posters have been published following this link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/23925432@N07/albums/72177720326776562

Build4People is proud to announce the publication of the 9th video of its Online Exhibition about Cambodia’s Green Pioneers introducing about Sotheavy AT who founded Think Plastic as part of her deep commitment to a greener Cambodia.

Thereby, she is using the power of social media and video storytelling to create awareness, and more importantly, to trigger behaviour change.

Among others, Think Plastic launched a hugely popular digital environmental advocacy campaign working to reduce plastic waste and inspire action from citizens across Cambodia.

Think Plastic started small, with two- to three-minute videos in 2019, and has grown rapidly to reach more than 4 million Cambodians in just one year—almost 25 percent of the population of the country.

#Build4People #BMBF_SUREregions #behaviourchange #wastemanagement #wastecollection #greenpioneers #changeagents

On 30 May 2025, the Build4People delegation trip members undertook a guided site visit to the Phú Xuân Wetland Park located in the Southern suburban district of Nhà Bè of Ho Chi Minh City.

This wetland park serves as a good-practice example of sponge city implementation and as a soft adaptation measure. It is located in an area characterized through many natural rivers and canals but also through massive urban spatial expansion was particularly designed to preserve the existing 4,600 m² water coconut tree area and even to extend it by approximately 3,000 m² of green fields and trees.

Besides its function to store temporarily rainwater, the Phú Xuân Wetland Park provides attractive spaces for leisure activities. As a nature-based solution it further serves as a demonstration project for soft climate change adaption in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and the whole region.

Given the foreseeable lack of sand needed for the construction of hard infrastructure, and the huge spatial dimensions of climate change affected areas within the whole mega city region of Ho Chi Minh City, the implementation of such blue-green infrastructure solutions is regarded as the most valid, resource-efficient and cost-effective option of climate change adaptation.

That is why the Phú Xuân Wetland Park has also been included as a good-practice example into the recent Build4People Planning and Design Guideline „Blue-Green Infrastructure“ which is part of the so called B4P Transformation Toolbox.

On this occasion Build4People would like to kindly thank Steven Petit and Ms. Ngoc Le, both OMEGIVING Vietnam, as leading contributors of its sub-chapter „Neighbourhood Blue-Green Infrastructure“.

Furthermore, Build4People would like to express its deep gratitude to Mr. Lê Nguyễn Ngọc Hải, Lecturer of Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Resources and Environment (HuNRE), and former Government Official at Nhà Bè District People’s Committee, who carefully guided us to increase our understanding about the key features of Phú Xuân Wetland Park.

To allow for a smooth guidance, all translations were done by Ms. Lê Vân Anh, Director of the Institute for Regional and Urban Studies (IRUS).

Finally, Build4People would like to express its deep gratitude to Dr. Phạm Trần Hải, Deputy Head of the Department of Urban Management Studies at the Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Development Studies (HIDS) and to his colleague Mr. Lê Hồng Nhật, for supporting the arrangement of this highly insightful site visit.

#Build4People #BMBF_SUREregions #spongecity #naturebasedsolutions #softadaptation #climatechangeadaptation #wetlandpark #greencity #sustainablecity

Where the German Embassy was once planned, a sustainable landmark now rises: the Deutsches Haus Ho Chi Minh City, designed by gmp von Gerkan, Marg and Partners Architects and driven by German innovation. It brings together German companies, AHK, GIZ, and others under one ultra efficient, tropical-proof roof.

🌱 Green highlights include:
– Double-skin façade with integrated sunshades – reduces heat and noise, controls daylight;
– Central water purification – clean drinking water on every floor, no plastic bottles;
– High-efficiency HVAC: 36% less energy than the regional average;
– LED lighting with smart control systems;
– Roof garden & solar panels;
– IBMS-based building automation;
– Hospital-grade indoor air quality.

🏆 Gold certified by the German Council for Sustainable Building (DGNB) – the first DGNB building in Vietnam.

Our visit was part of the Build4People delegation trip to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on 30 May 2025, including a highly ranking delegation from Phnom Penh Capital Hall, among them the Vice-Governor of Phnom Penh, H.E. Vannak Seng, as well as leading Cambodian urban planners and colleagues from Royal University of Phnom Penh as well as the German Build4People team members exploring green and smart city approaches of the Vietnam’s first mega city.

Our special thanks go to Elmar Dutt for his inspiring introduction to key features of this lighthouse project, to Peter Kompalla for arranging the site visit, and to Thuy Vu for guiding us to the BASF office, the German Business Association GBA, and the AHK-German Business Incubator all located at Deutsches Haus Ho Chi Minh City.

Our gratitude goes to our funding agency, as well, the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space, who enabled Build4People to implement its innovative cross-cutting and transformative approach.