Enhancing Quality of Life through Sustainable Urban Transformation in Cambodia: Introduction to the Build4People Project

Abstract

This policy brief introduces preliminary research results of the Build4People project, funded by the German government as part of the multi-phase focus programme “Sustainable Development of Urban Regions”. Furthermore, the research agenda of the upcoming main four-year Research and Development phase (RD phase) will be introduced based on insights gained in previous shorter funding periods. The Build4People research consortium consists of representatives from four German universities and two German companies with their respective research, implementation and dissemination partners in the Kingdom of Cambodia. Build4People’s rationale is based on Phnom Penh‘s dynamic economic growth, which is coupled with a local urbanisation and construction boom. However, new buildings and neighbourhoods are rarely constructed in a sustainable way with direct and indirect negative environmental impacts. Issues of sustainability are hardly addressed by decision-makers in the construction sector, related ministries, city administrations or building users. The overall aim of the multi- and trans-disciplinary Build4People project during the RD phase is to support and analyse the transformative shift in Phnom Penh’s current business-as-usual urban development pathway towards a pathway with higher sustainability and liveability levels. The entry points for the research are the building and neighbourhood planning sectors. Methods, tools and key instruments to achieve the objectives of the RD phase are collaborative planning workshops, strategic niche management approaches, transition management approaches and subsequent experimental implementation. All of these measures will generate applied knowledge for local stakeholders and a basis for evidence-based decision-making. Urban quality of life as a people-driven approach serves as the integrating link for all of our scientific, conceptional, analytical and normative dimensions. During our research, we will jointly conceptualize, measure and model urban quality of life and consider its political dimension and its often-ambiguous relationship to sustainability.