Vann Molyvann

Vann Molyvann was a Cambodian architect. During the Sangkum Reastr Niyum regime (1955–1970) Prince Norodom Sihanouk enacted a development policy encompassing the whole kingdom with the construction of new towns, infrastructure and architecture. Vann was the foremost of a generation of architects who contributed to the unique style of architecture that emerged during this era and that has been coined New Khmer Architecture. In 1997 Darryl Collins Historian and Helen Grant Ross Architect Historian, two lecturers at the Royal University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh, questioned the history behind this heritage of modern architecture that all could see throughout the land, but that everybody had forgotten due to the troubled history of the Kingdom. After nearly 10 years of research in 2006 they published the facts. In the meantime they produced exhibitions, participated in university conferences, and wrote many articles in the press about the phenomenon known as New Khmer Architecture, and the accomplishments of Vann Molyvann who was still alive and who they had interviewed lengthily.