the olympic stadium project: how to contemporize an iconic national monument while preserving its history
Being offered the opportunity to work on contemporizing one of Phnom Penh’s most iconic landmarksis nothing short of exuberating.
Whether you’ve been in Phnom Penh for one month, one year, or your whole life, you’ll no doubt be more than acquainted with/sta-adh oh-lam-pik./
A historical landmark, the Olympic Stadium (officially, the National Stadium) is one of the few remaining public spaces amidst a rapidly developing city. It stands as a monument to Cambodia’s artistic and cultural ‘Golden Age’ 60 years ago, and the unique style of architecture that emerged during that time - New Khmer Architecture.
It was within this context that we were given the opportunity by the Ministry of Education Youth and Sport to contemporize the National Stadium.
The main building at the stadium is one of the few remaining historical structures in Phnom Penh.
Photo courtesy of Antal Gabelics
Copyright: 2016 @Antal Gabelics
“So, how exactly does one go about contemporizing a historical monument?”
1 - Think about who you’re doing it for
One of the first things we did before we even got started was research into its user base. We ran several surveys on people of different age groups and occupations to find out what role the stadium plays in their lives.
Understanding what the stadium is at its core provided us with a framework to base our work on.
What it is is definitely more than an old multi-sports complex. As it turns out, the stadium plays different roles in different people’s lives; some go there for a morning run or a session of Tai Chi, some for work and many just go there to relax and partake in community exercise in the evenings.
Last but not least it’s a breath of fresh air in the middle of a hectic urban landscape, a precious and beautiful remnant of the New Khmer Architecture in the sea of shiny drab modernity, and a thriving community centre.
So what did that mean for us?
That meant that every aspect of our plan had to have the enrichment of everyday users’ lives in mind.
Everything we do has to fall under the pillars of our vision for the stadium: community, health, and safety.
Which is to say, the plan has to revolve around further promoting the vision of Vann Molyvann in parallel with our own to its user base. Who are we doing it for and how will it benefit them became our cornerstone.
2 - Drawing up the Master Plan
We started with exploring ‘What do we have?’ before deciding ‘What do we need to do and what we need to add?’
In this respect, we were fortunate to have the experience-backed guidance of the Ministry of Education Youth and Sports. Their intimate knowledge provided us a roadmap to our goal and helped us swiftly understand the systems and processes in place.
We all agreed that we will maximise existing processes and structures by strengthening it with new and improved systems to improve the overall efficiency at the stadium.
Once we had a solid understanding of the existing infrastructure, the next step was to eliminate blockages to achieve our vision and bring in new ideas that would help us work towards it. At every block we used a filter:
“Does this contribute to the efficiency and experience of the stadium?”
We divided the project into two parts: Public Affairs Management and Facilities Management.
Managing public affairs include providing great customer service at a fully functioning information centre, creating brand guidelines, standardizing rates for advertising and event space leasing, and ensuring transparency in all our reporting and finances.
On managing facilities, we will tackle the basics as a first step - waste management, way-finding, traffic, ticketing and parking management.
Once we have covered the basics we will focus on creating green spaces. With condos, business centres and malls popping up seemingly overnight all over the city, green spaces have become scarce. We’re looking forward to creating a public green space at the stadium that will lead the way in public environmental regeneration and beautification for the benefit of Phnom Penh and its residents.
3- The all-new Information Center
The current ticketing booth will be transformed into an Information Center. We will preserve the basic structure whilst adding a new façade, extension and finishes to make it more efficient and comfortable for the public and the stadium management team.
This is important because the Information Center acts as the first touchpoint. A polished, organized information centre makes for a much better first impression; and a new look is definitely a great way to signal a wave of change.
Exterior - front
Exterior - back
Images/designs courtesy of ReEdge
4 - Add value to the existing structure
The one and the only way we can work towards achieving the vision is through collaborating with experts. Our first collaboration has been with Re-Edge Architecture & Design led by Hun Chansan. Re-Edge very kindly designed the new Information Center pro-bono. You can read here about how we approached the design of the information centre. We are looking forward to the technical expertise and sponsorship partnership in the following areas:
Construction of the new information center (materials, contractors)
Advertising
Water tanks for stadium staff
Stadium deep-clean
Waste bins for proper waste separation for the public and for the food court
Informative health and safety poster production
Way-finding production
Ticketing systems
Greenery
Food court relocation to a more desirable spot
“How can you help?”
Come over, get to know us. Donate! Sponsor! Connect! There’s so much you can do to help contribute to the contemporizing of a national icon - just drop us an email or give us a call. We’d love to get to know you.
If you have more questions or interested in partnering please comment below, or contact us at hello@theideaconsultants.com. :)