On 21 April 2023, the Build4People team, consisting of the consortium leader, Dr. Michael Waibel, the research associate Ravi Jayaweera, both Hamburg University, and Prof. Dr. Tep Makathy, dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia met with Mr. Ratha Chan, Deputy Corporate Affair Director & Assistant to GCEO of Peng Huoth Group.
During the meeting we firstly did a brief review of the Build4People Ecocity Transition Lab which has been jointly organized in February / March 2023. Afterwards, Ratha Chan provided detailed insights into the current situation of the Cambodian real estate market apparently heavily impacted by the recent corona pandemic, the ongoing war in Ukraine and by other market failures. However, the most important point of the meeting, was the discussion about the future cooperation between Peng Huoth Group and the Build4People project team. Ratha Chan explained about a new urban development site in the South of Phnom Penh and we discussed challenges to implement another Build4People Ecocity Transition Lab workshop series based on this area. We all agreed that this requires careful preparation, that it would be a great opportunity to involve local urban planning students one more time, and most importantly, to develop a joint vision of a leading sustainable neighbourhood development of Cambodia.
