An old friend of mine alerted me to The Man Who Built Cambodia, a short (30 minutes, give or take) film about architect Vann Molyvann. “He defined this Khmer Modernist style of architecture that fit in with the country’s historical/cultural roots,” emailed my friend, who lives in Phnom Penh, “but which also looked progressive.”
That observation pretty much nails Molyvann’s ethos—and, to my mind, represents an ideal in architecture that’s achieved only by the truly gifted.
A graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Molyvann was the first qualified Cambodian architect when he returned to his country in 1956. What happened over the next 14 years is, well…just watch the film. It’s beautifully shot and edited, with a haunting musical score that lingers long after the credits have rolled. I promise your eyes will be opened to more than just a forgotten architect.
