Revisiting Cambodia - 2018
Over the Christmas break I had the opportunity to re-visit Cambodia. It’s been three fruitful years since I spent six months volunteering with Swiss Architect Martin Aerne and the team at Aerne Architect and Associates in Phnom Penh. At that time I had an amazing and humbling experience, and three years on, I was delighted to see how the practice has grown and prospered.
The AA&A team prepared an amazing Khmer celebration dinner, and we got to join in. What a privilege!
Happy snap with Martin, right before we went our separate ways.
AA&A office, Phnom Penh
AA&A office, Phnom Penh
Presenting what I’ve learnt about hemp masonry to the team
Spending time in devotion is an integral part of practice life.
Spellbinding end-of-year sunset somewhere over Laos
Dave and Robin, Brisbanites who lead Hope International School in Phnom Penh, are huge inspirations to us. My wife was a teacher there while I was volunteering in 2015. I couldn’t do what I do without her support!
Visiting Park Homes
I even got to visit Park Homes, the project that we worked on together, which was an incredibly special time. Hearing how the design has helped the client’s family to flourish has been encouraging, heart-warming and confidence-inspiring. I am incredibly thankful for visionary and understanding clients, as well as the hard work of Martin, Rady, Samedy and the team to carry through the original vision with care and expertise.
I’ve updated the gallery to suit - hope you enjoy the new images, even though a few are overexposed. Sigh, a rookie’s mistake - I think it was just the excitement of it all!
Thankful always
At the risk of sounding like a gushing fan-boi, It’s hard to describe concisely how my time in Cambodia has changed and shaped me into the Architect I am today. Not only in terms of technical knowledge and resilience (though I learnt a lot), but also about how faith defines work, redeems our profession, compels us to lead, and helps us to create better buildings as Architects.
I will have to flesh this out another time, in a separate blog post…
In the end, I am sure you will find Martin and AA&A’s DNA in my work - just as my contribution back in 2015 has left an imprint in the life and evolution of their office in Phnom Penh.