Build4People

Build4People is thrilled about announce about the publication of a brief video clip documenting the first B4P Transition Manufactory 2026 process. It is the follow-up format of B4P Ecocity Transition Lab series undertaken in 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024 with the city government of Phnom Penh together with major local property developer companies, various universities, and CIUS – Cambodian Institute for Urban Studies as local facilitator.

The B4P Transition Manufactory 2026 #1 follows a living lab approach, involving multiple stakeholders to initiate a visioning process to create a clear, inspiring, and shared image of an alternative sustainable urban future.

The urban site we worked on during the B4P TM 2026 is Mekong Key Riverfront City, a 200-ha-development along Mekong River opposite Koh Norea developed by TP Moral Group. It is at an early planning stage which will hopefully allow for sustainability interventions from side of Build4People.

By means of the first B4P Transition Manufactory 2026 we are furthermore bringing in the Twin Transformation strategy by combing digital and sustainability approaches. We did trainings in the use of digital urban planning tools and wanted to develop step by step a dynamic urban digital model following the principles of our B4P Transformation Toolbox sustainability neighbourhood evaluation criteria.

Adding to technical digital design solutions we used the opportunity of the B4P Transition Manufactory 2026 to develop visual utopias of inclusive urban transformation in partnership with WAE (women in architecture and engineering), and to explore potentials of AI to visualize urban dynamics in partnership with the Cambodian Academy of Digital Technology (CADT), CityLAB Berlin and the GIZ founded Digital Transformation Center (DTC).

During the final Presentation Conference, the comprehensive results of different working groups were presented. The participating students received official Certificates of Appreciation to honour their dedicated and engaged work. After the presentation part, a Letter of Intent was exchanged between the Build4People representative and the CEO of TP Moral Group.

The whole Build4People team would like to express its deep gratitude to all participants of this exciting and inspiring collective endeavour, particularly the engaged students of six participating institutions of higher education, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia, Norton University, Royal University of Fine Arts, Western University, and Cambodian Academy of Digital Technology. Our special thanks go to Steven Petit, creative director of OMGEVING, based in Ho Chi Minh City, who support us in regard of the development of blue-green infrastructure solutions.

The outputs of the B4P TM Presentation Conference will get further refined over the next months until the 2nd B4P Transition Manufactory, due to December 2026.

On 15 June 2026, Prof. Dr. Lutz Katzschner, co-founder of INKEK, the Institute for Climate and Energy Concepts, Germany, and retired professor from University of Kassel, Germany, presented on Urban Climate at the Department of Geography and Land Management of the Royal University of Phnom Penh. He did this as Visiting Professor based on his previous role as leader of the Build4People Work Package “Urban Climate”.

Attendants were students of the Bachelor and Master Degrees guided by Assistant Professor Dr. Bunleng Se as part of his course on urban climate.

During the lecture Prof. Katzschner introduced about basic principles of climate-proof urban design.

He also presented the first urban climate map of Phnom Penh, developed by INKEK, the Institute of Climate and Energy Concepts, during the Build4People RD Phase.

Beside the presentation on urban climate, Geography sutdents were assigned to join in urban climatope design with the purposes of micro-climate measurement based on climatope map and instructed to conduct interviews the local population on their perceptions on thermal comfort in select locations using the B4P-RUPP Thermal Comfort App and weather measurement instruments.

Build4People is very grateful to Prof. Dr. Lutz Katzschner to continue his efforts to teach about the relevance of urban climate.

His stay as a Visiting Professor at Royal University of Phnom Penh got funded through the Johann Gottfried Herder-Programm of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) of the German Federal government.

Prof Serey Sok, Head of the Research Office of the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), supported the Build4People project team and is providing a course on “Research Analysis” for Master of Science (MSCs) in Biodiversity Conservation, cohort 2020.

The course aims to equip students with data analysis skills and to help them write academic papers for dissertations and journals. To complete the course, each student is required to write a manuscript of at least 5,000 words for the final term paper and present the paper for the mid-term exam.

To practice in the real world, students were asked to use the RUPP-B4P Citizen Science App developed by Build4People in cooperation with the RUPP IT Center and the RUPP Research office.

The data collected from a clone of the Citizen Science App, the so-called RUPP-B4P Thermal Comfort App, were used by students, analyzed, and presented as part of the course.

Due to the high-quality data collected by the RUPP-B4P Thermal Comfort App, students were able to conduct advanced analyses, including correlation and regression. The students benefited greatly from the App, which provided scientific, reliable data for analysis.

Now, students are working on a manuscript for publication in a local journal, which will be submitted in July or August 2026.

This example from teaching demonstrates that the RUPP-B4P Citizen Science App has strong potential as a scientific diagnostic tool.

Build4People strongly supports the further dissemination of the RUPP-B4P Citizen Science App not only as a scientific diagnosis tool but also as a public participation tool, and will continue its empowerment efforts for RUPP staff.

#citizenscience #Build4People #citizenscience_app #publicparticipation