Staircases

The White Building, originally known as the Municipal Apartments, is a large and prominent apartment building in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, one of the major works of New Khmer Architecture. Designed as a 450-metre (1,480 ft) architectural composition on Samdach Sothearos Boulevard near the Bassac River, it was built in 1963 as a symbol of modernism in Cambodia, part of a large composition of civic buildings.

I worked there when we knew that the almost 500 families still living in the White Building were moving out in July 2017. Following my visual observation, I found out the staircases is a very special space in the building and decided to focus on what happens there. Beside physical function of staircases, it is a small community where people hang out around, chit-chat, playground for kids, people selling stuff, nail salon and so on. And it is a symbol of the relationship that joints the building together from floor to floor, same way of connecting people relation.

The building was, at first, supposed to make way for a 21-storey mixed-use development. Yet in early April 2019, the government announced that the place was soon to be replaced by Naga3, which is under NagaCorp, the biggest casino in Phnom Penh.

It was completely demolished in August 2017. The staircases and their activities became for me the most impressive and moving remembering of a theatre of life in the White Building.

- Text by: Christian Caujolle -