Vann Molyvann
Architect BORN NOVEMBER 23, 1926 - DIED SEPTEMBER 28, 2017, AGED 90
OFTEN referred to as “the man who built Cambodia”, architect Vann Molyvann designed more than 100 buildings, including iconic structures from the 1950s and 1960s such as Phnom Penh’s National Sports Complex and the Independence Monument.
He was best known for combining modernist principles with ancient motifs, a style called New Khmer architecture.
Born to a poor family in Kampot province, south-west Cambodia, when it was still a French protectorate, he won a scholarship to study law in France but switched to architecture studies at Paris’s Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts.
From 1954 to 1956 he worked as an architect in Paris before returning to Cambodia, which had gained independence in 1953, to work as chief state architect at the behest of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodia’s head of state.
During this era known as the “Golden Age” he built such famous landmarks as the fan-shaped Chaktomuk Conference Hall, the Council of Ministers and state palace in the capital.
When Sihanouk was overthrown by a military coup in 1970 Molyvann relocated to Switzerland and remained there for the next two decades as the Khmer Rouge ransacked Phnom Penh.
After a peace agreement was signed in 1991, Molyvann returned home and became an advocate for responsible urban planning and preservation, finding himself at odds with the corruption of Cambodia in the 1990s.
He served as culture minister and became head of the Apsara Authority, which administers the famous Angkor temples.
In 2017 he was the subject of a documentary film, The Man Who Built Cambodia.
He is survived by his wife Trudy, three daughters and two sons.
His eldest son predeceased him.