Build4People

On 04 February 2026, there was a meaningful strategic exchange between leading representatives of Phnom Penh Capital Hall, among them H.E. Vannak Seng, Vice-Governor of Phnom Penh, and the Build4People project.

The main purpose of this meeting was to introduce about the transformative format of the so-called B4P Transition Manufactory, which shall take place in early March 2026 in cooperation with Phnom Penh Capital Hall and one of the leading real estate development companies of Cambodia, the TP Moral Group (TPMG).

Through the B4P Transition Manufactory we want to implement Performance-Based Design (PBD) which infuses our B4P TTB Sustainability Neighbourhood Criteria and Planning and Design guidelines.

Furthermore, we want to use it to develop alternative (digital) visions of sustainable urban development based on a real site, the Quay Mekong Riverfront City opposite Koh Norea.

The final aim is to present a dynamic parametric urban digital model which will get completed after the second B4P Transition Manufactory cycle in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Overall, the format of the Build4People Transition Manufactory is a significant capacity building tool which includes trainings in the use of digital urban planning tools and which also serves to convey a comprehensive understanding of urban sustainability. The local coordination of the training activities will be done by the Cambodian Institute for Urban Studies.

We are very much thrilled and sincerely hope that many engaged students from different universities, e.g. the School of Architecture and Urban Planning, the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Norton University and the Royal University of Agriculture will join this collective endeavour.

#Build4People

On 30 January 2026, the Vice-Governor of Phnom Penh, H.E. Vannak Senk, signed a so-called Project Implementation Agreement with the Build4People consortium lead, the University of Hildesheim.

After previous agreements with Cambodia’s largest university, the Royal University of Phnom Penh, the Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia, and the Cambodian Institute of Urban Studies, this was the last formal step to formalize Build4People’s cooperation with major Cambodian institutions during its concluding Implementation phase.

The core aim of the Project Implementation Agreement is to foster the digitalization of the B4P Transformation Toolbox as inter-active information-, public participation-, knowledge-, technology-, and learning platform supporting evidence-based data-driven decisions as well as scenario building towards sustainability and enhanced quality of life in urban Cambodia.

It also ensures the implementation of the follow-up format of B4P Ecocity Transition Lab series, the so-called B4P Transition Manufactory. Following the strategy of the so-called Twin Transformation this urban lab will facilitate Performance-Based Design (PBD) through infusing our B4P Transformation Toolbox Neighbourhood Evaluation Criteria and guidelines, to develop alternative (digital) visions of sustainable development based on a real urban development site and to conduct trainings in regard of the use of digital urban planning tools. Based on this, the final aim is to develop a parametric digital urban model, for the first time in Cambodia.

The Build4People project is very happy about a joint publication at the Cambodia Journal of Basic and Applied Research. The leading author is Dr. Bunleng Se from the Department of Geography and Land Management at Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) with contributions from further Build4People team members.

This publication which got published as so-called editorial paper is generally dealing with the implementation of citizen science approaches among higher education institutions and their potential benefits in regard of research and lecturing as well as public participation.

The rationale behind is that traditional top-down planning approaches often fail to reflect lived experiences, especially in dynamically growing cities such as Phnom Penh. Against this backdrop, the implementation of digital citizen science tools allow the urban population to add subjective perceptions to objective metrics. Examples of such subjective perceptions would be thermal comfort, shading availability, or heat stress

More specifically, the paper introduces about the B4P Citizen Science App which got experimentally applied during a Build4People Transformation Workshop in early December 2025. Thereby, it was the aim to link subjective data gained through the App with objective data of measured environmental features. In our case, this combined approach enabled the app users to infuse their personal feelings of thermal comfort and perceived urban quality of life beyond pure measurement of (objective) weather data. The testing of the B4P Citizen Science App among Workshop participants took place at two sites of RUPP campus with distinct environmental features.

The results of the exploratory empirical survey showed that the use of such a citizen science app provides indeed valid data and that consequently the development of the B4P Citizen Science App should be further continued as joint implementation orientated project between the Build4People project team members and their colleagues from Royal University of Phnom Penh.

Build4People is very happy about the continued infusion of its transformative approaches into the Master Program in Urban and Regional Planning at Royal University of Agriculture.

Prof. Dr. Tep Makathy, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia and Director of the Cambodian Institute of Urban Studies, is currently teaching the 2^nd batch of students of this innovative course.

His course unit “Sustainable Urban Transformation” applies key principles of the B4P Transformation Toolbox, developed to support the Phnom Penh Capital Administration in implementing more sustainable urban neighbourhoods.

B4P Transformation Toolbox components include Neighbourhood Evaluation Criteria, the planning and design guidelines Integrated Urban Design,  Blue-Green Infrastructure, Sustainable Urban Mobility, Climate Protection & Energy Flows, Social Inclusion & Local Economy and Governance & Participation.

The course covers the fundamental principles of Build4People, such as the inclusion of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives, a comprehensive understanding of urban planning as a transformative communication process involving multiple stakeholders, and a general advocacy for putting people and sustainability at the center.

All in all, it should be emphasized that the integration of Build4People’s comprehensive transformative formats into the curricula of local master’s programs, such as at the Royal University of Agriculture, is considered an extremely valuable and sustainable outcome for the Build4People project, as the continuation of the Build4People project approaches is expected to have long-term effects even after the end of project funding by the BMFTR.

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