The Building, home to about 2,500 families in Phnom Penh’s Chamkarmon district, was a hive of activity yesterday. Its residents may soon be given their marching orders, according to city officials.
CITY authorities have warned that residents of the iconic Bassac apartment block in Chamkarmon district could be forced to vacate the building if it is deemed “unsafe” by municipal housing experts.
In a letter dated last Thursday, Governor Kep Chuktema described the 1960s-era apartment complex as “ruined” and said residents might be forced to relocate.
“To avoid danger, City Hall orders all villagers who are living [in the building] to stop repairing the building or adding onto the existing building without permission from expert officials,” the letter said.
Residents should also “prepare to leave the building to find a new place to live” once experts made a final announcement about the state of the structure, it said. It did not say when such a decision was expected.
Residents said yesterday that they were concerned about the new announcement from City Hall, fearing a fate similar to the adjacent Dey Krahorm community, which was violently evicted by police and construction workers in January, 2009.
“I don’t think that the authorities are thinking much about residents’ safety. What they are thinking is just to give the land to businessmen,” said Sem Sinoun, 45, who said she had lived in The Building since 1979.
The grime-streaked apartment block, designed in the early 1960s by Russian architect Vladimir Boliansky and then-municipal planning director Lu Ban Hap, is one of the few remaining examples of the Khmer modernist architecture that transformed the capital during the 1960s and early 1970s. …read the full story in tomorrow’s Phnom Penh Post or see the updated story online from 3PM UTC/GMT +7 hours.
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