The complex will appear in the capital of the country, Phnom Penh, on the site of a former forced labor camp where the Khmer Rouge "reeducated" the intelligentsia, diplomats who returned from abroad and Cambodian students of foreign universities. The customer of the project is the Cambodian Documentation Center, which has collected a huge archive of materials about the genocide of civilians under the regime of "Democratic Kampuchea" in 1975-1978, when about 1.5 million citizens of the country were killed.
However, the new institute - the first building of the Hadid bureau of wood (including the supporting structure) - as the customers wanted, does not produce the usual impression of "gloom and appeal to the past" for such structures, since its important role is in spreading ideas of reconciliation and openness to the future …
The building consists of five "blocks", each of which can be used separately. Their functions are the institute itself, a library with the largest collection of literature on genocide in Southeast Asia, a university where the curriculum will be devoted to genocide, conflicts and human rights problems, an archive and research center, a press center and an auditorium.
The five blocks will be interconnected at the top, where the building expands significantly from ground level. This expansion will also shade the lower floors of the building, while the upper tiers will be protected from the heat of the sun by protective screens on the facades.
Of the 7 hectares of the plot, 6.8 hectares will be occupied by a city park with sports grounds, a city garden and fruit trees. Its paths will connect previously unconnected neighboring streets, which should attract as many citizens as possible to the center.
The institute complex will be surrounded by ponds for collecting rainwater, similar to reservoirs of the same function in Angkor Wat and other ancient temples of Cambodia. These architectural monuments also influenced the overall solution of the Hadid project. During the rainy season, the park will also partly turn into a pond, which will reduce the load on the city's sewage and drainage system. In addition, the institute will be placed on a special platform, which will protect it from floods, since the Tonle Sap River flows into the Mekong very close.
Other “green” elements of the project include solar collectors and roof batteries, and its own wastewater treatment system.
