The White Building: Community, Art, and Urban Transformation in Phnom Penh

Vuth Lyno's essay, published in Afterall Journal 50 on November 11, 2020, traces the history of Phnom Penh's White Building, originally the Municipal Apartments designed by Cambodian architect Lu Ban Hap and Ukrainian-born French engineer Vladimir Bodiansky. Part of the larger Bassac River Front project under Norodom Sihanouk's Sangkum Reastr Niyum regime, the complex included social housing, a National Theatre, and exhibition halls on reclaimed land. After the Khmer Rouge regime, surviving artists repopulated the building, fostering a vibrant community of over 2,500 residents by 2010. The Stiev Selapak arts collective, including Lyno, launched Sa Sa Art Projects from an apartment in 2010, organizing art classes, workshops, and events that transformed spaces like cafés and rooftops into venues for film screenings and performances. The essay explores how art and community mutually transformed each other until the building's demolition.