On 28 May 2025, a public lecture was held by the interdisciplinary research project Build4People at the Canopy Layer of Raintree Phnom Penh. It was prepared by the Build4People team in cooperation with the Cambodian Institute for Urban Studies (CIUS) led by Prof Tep Makathy, and the association Women in Architecture and Engineering of Cambodia (WAE) led by Ms. May Sokunlanita.
The lecture was mainly attended by architecture and urban planning students from Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia, Norton University (led by Prof Phanin Cheam), and from Royal University of Fine Arts.
The main objective of the lecture was to give an overview on the topic of gender-sensitive and inclusive urban planning from different disciplinary perspectives and to exercise the method of Post-Occupancy-Evaluation (POE) which puts the users of the urban built environment into focus.
The lecture event started with a brief introduction about the Build4People project and an inter-active session to generally raise awareness on the issue of gender in the field of architecture and urban planning provided by the Build4People representative Dr Michael Waibel, Hamburg University.
Following to this, Ms. Lena Loeffeler, scientific assistant at the University of Hamburg, presented the rationale as well as good-practice examples of gender-sensitive and inclusive planning, including a brief visual planning exercise with the participants.
Then, Ms. Selina Thomas from the architectural and urban design office Eble Messerschmidt Partner (EMP), Tübingen, Germany, with abundant experience in implementing people-centered planning projects, provided insights from a planning perspective and showcased good-practice examples from Germany and Austria.
After this, Dr. Anke Blöbaum, Magdeburg University, grasped the topic from the perspective of environmental psychology and introduced about the empirical method of Post-Occupancy-Evaluation (POE) in detail which specifically serves to evaluate spatial needs among the urban citizens.
The following practical POE exercise was guided by Sokunlanity May, co-founder of the non-governmental association Women in Architecture and Engineering of Cambodia (WAE). She introduced about the two sites of field research, one around the Phnom Penh Central Station and the other one around the Central Market, as well as about the guiding research questions.
Then, the lecture audience split up into several working groups, guided by different Build4People team members and did brief field research. After the return of the groups, the students evaluated their findings and presented the key results.
The lecture event was closed by Prof Tep Makathy and Dr Michael Waibel, who showcased the example of the Berkeley University’s campus re-design in the 1970s, where students started to engage in the urban design of the site and fostered the inclusive use of the campus – with benefits for all of its users.
Build4People would like to thank everyone involved in the lecture, especially our cooperation partners, the active participating students as well as the team of Raintree Phnom Penh, who kindly provided their location for this meaningful event.
