Modern Khmer Cities: The Angkor/Siem Reap Region

The ongoing gigantic remodeling of Siem Reap, with the creation of a new airport and a brand new satellite city, obeys to a masterplan that is partly inspired by Vann Molyvann’s recommendations from the times the late architect, ​“the man who built Cambodia”, was leading APSARA Authority.

• Expansion of the water management system: Describing the multiple adaptations and rehabilitations of the water management system dating back from Angkorean times, the author notes: ​“Today, priority should be given to the restoration and expansion of this irrigation network which remains perfectly functional.”
• Expansion to the East: while the author had not projected the development of mass tourism Angkor experienced in pre-Covid19 times, he opposed the building of large hotels along the Western section of National Road 6, advocating instead for a satellite garden-city east of the existing town, dubbed the ​‘Hotel City”, to ​“accommodate large hotels of international standards (3 stars and up). A sub-decree of the 13th of October 1995 gave APSARA Authority an area of 560 hectares in which to organise and manage a Hotel City. A more recent sub-decree has enlarged this area to 1004 hectares. The location of the Hotel City does not conflict with protected archaeological zones nor does it take over agricultural or forest zones. Instead, the Hotel City is consciously planned for an area in which the soil does not allow for agricultural development. The new city will be designed to blend seamlessly into the surrounding environment.” This planning was designed on a much more modest scale than it was actually developed, farther east than envisioned by Vann Molyvann. 
• The transfer of Siem Reap International Airport to the Damdek area was suggested in the book and completed in 2023 without any sign of the author’s ​‘New City’ being even planned. 
• Will the ​“buffer zones” protecting the temples aread be respected in the future? The major renovation of road, rainwater collection and sewage systems undertook during the years 2021 – 2023, in the midst of Covid-19 pandemic, didn’t go in the direction envisioned by the author:

Vann Molyvann’s Masterplan of Protected Zones for Siem Reap, 2003. [V.M., Modern Khmer Cities, p. 102].

• The notion of a ​‘Tourist City’ developing on the outskirts of an existing town has been challenged by several factors, including — the decrease of international travelers’ arrival since the pandemic parenthesis, — new trends in worldwide tourism, with a growing demand for ​‘culturally immersive experiences’ and the decline of group tourism. 

From the original French version