Lu Ban Hap, who turned 90 this year, was among the most important architects and urban planners in Cambodia in the 1960s. He studied in Paris from 1949 to 1959, graduating from the École Spéciale d’Architecture. On his return to Cambodia, he became only the second trained architect from Cambodia, after Vann Molyvann. Having come back to Phnom Penh—at that point still the capital of the independent, neutral kingdom of Cambodia—he was immediately asked to develop the new Service Municipal de l’Urbanisme et de l’Habitat (Municipal Department of Urban Planning and Housing). His department, which had twelve staff, was responsible for almost every area of planning and construction in Cambodia’s booming capital city, from designating new construction areas to planning and maintaining public buildings and gardens, issuing building permits, coordinating road construction, street lighting, and waste disposal, as well as organizing the public water and electricity supply. There was a complete lack of expertise in Cambodia for some of the tasks that Lu faced, and he regularly traveled overseas in search of expert knowledge.
…
