Build4People

Build4People is very proud to announce the 4^rth video clip of its online exhibition “Cambodia’s Green Pioneers”, introducing Kongngy Hav. He is the founder of the social enterprise “My Dream Home” to make affordable housing available in Cambodia, thereby introducing an interlocking brick system made from compressed soil and cement. 💡🧱🧩👷🏽‍♀️💚🇰🇭

These eco-friendly interlocking bricks significantly reduce the use of sand, cement, and energy compared to traditional red bricks, and they thus leave a lower carbon footprint. The use of non-arable topsoil for brick production aligns with the circular economy’s circularity principle, by reusing a resource – soil – that is typically discarded and used for construction filling. Unlike traditional red clay bricks, which require firing – and in Cambodia, burning wood is most often used for this process – “My Dream Home” bricks undergo compression manufacturing, which leaves a minimal carbon footprint. 

In this way Kongngy Hav’s innovative approach has a positive effect on natural resource use, as it promotes material efficiency, waste reduction and all in all a lower carbon footprint.💡🧱🧩👷🏽‍♀️💚🇰🇭.

#Build4People #BMBF_SUREregions #sustainablelifestyle #sustainablebuildingmaterials #affordablehousing #circulareconomy #behaviourchange #greenpioneers #changeagents

This first clip of the B4P Snapshot Interview Series was done on the occasion of the International Women’s Day on 08 March 2025. 

Build4People interviewed Ms. Sokunlanita May, who founded the W.A.E. – Women in Architecture and Engineering, to strengthen the role of women in Cambodia’s building industry. In the course of the interview, she provided insights why she founded W.A.E. and how she perceives its role as well as how she envisages the future collaboration with the Build4People project.

#Build4People #BMBF_SUREregions #changeagents #greenpioneers #genderequality #genderresponsiveurbandesign #WAE #inclusiveurbantransformation #sustainableurbantransformation #SDG5 

Build4People is very proud to announce the 3^rd video clip of its online exhibition “Cambodia’s Green Pioneers”, introducing Chansopheak Hem, creator of the Pteah Chas Community and founder of the Phnom Penh Houseplant Festival 💡🪴💚🌸🇰🇭.

Promoting environmentally friendly behavior and sustainable entrepreneurship must be regarded as key challenges of Cambodia. The vivid economic development of this emerging country has led to increasing incomes among its urban population but was also responsible for dramatic effects on the environment and urban quality of life. To name just a few the continuous loss of green spaces and water bodies, increasing air pollution, abundant traffic jams and enormous waste problems.

Against this backdrop, Build4People aims to raise awareness of these problems among the urban citizens, which serves as an important prerequisite for behavior change. By providing visibility and public acknowledgement to pioneers of pro-environmental behaviour, they can function as role models, inspiring the people to act in a more environmentally friendly way.

The Build4People Online Exhibition “Cambodia’s Green Pioneers” is therefore considered as an important participatory intervention to support a change of mindset among Cambodia’s population. The aim is to use role models to strengthen social norms, enhance people’s self-efficacy, and encourage more environmentally friendly everyday behaviors. By featuring a diverse set of sustainability pioneers, we aim to inspire the urban population to replicate their sustainable lifestyles.

The 3^rd video clip of the Build4People Online Exhibition “Cambodia’s Green Pioneers” introduces Chansopheak Hem, founder of the Pteah Chas Community and founder of the Phnom Penh Houseplant Festival. Through his initiative, a heritage shophouse in the centre of Phnom Penh got preserved and converted into a green community and co-working space dedicated for creative entrepreneurs as well into a vibrant exhibition and lecture space attracting Cambodia’s young generation💡💚🇰🇭.

Furthermore, Chansopheak Hem initiated the first Phnom Penh Houseplant Festival in 2021. In spring 2025, already the fourth Phnom Penh Plant and Garden Fair took place at the Connexion building of Koh Pich, Phnom Penh, which got sponsored by the property development company OCIC Group. 🪴💚🇰🇭.

#Build4People #BMBF_SUREregions #sustainablelifestyle #environmentallyfriendlybehaviour #behaviourchange #greenpioneers #changeagents

Visit Chansopheak Hem Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/chansopheak_hem/

Visit Instagram account of Pteah Chas Community: https://www.instagram.com/pteahchas

Visit Instagram account of Jungle à Domicile (Chansopheak Hem’s business): https://www.instagram.com/jungledomicile/

The Build4People project is happy to announce that The Cambodia Journal of Basic and Applied Research (CJBAR), Vol. 6 No. 2 (2024), has published an article about the Science Workshop “Urban Quality of Life and the Build4People Citizen Science App” at Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) within its NEWS section.

The author of this piece is Prof Dr Sok Serey, Deputy Head of the Research Office at Cambodia’s biggest and most renowned university, the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP).

Download link of the pdf-file of the CJBAR News article: Science Workshop “Urban Quality of Life and the Build4People Citizen Science App” at Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP).