The constant threat of flood and varying water levels were common threads among the different cultures and, as a result, all the structures were similarly light in weight, mobile and showed great flexibility in construction. The weather as the primary physical factor constitutes the strongest modifying element in house form development in the area. The movement patterns of the village are directly associated with the changing flood levels. The data collected have indicated a minimum of twelve separate movements during which the entire village collectively relocates without any apparent organized resettlement pattern or grid system. The relative positioning of the houses and individual communities are maintained, and reverse movement commences as the flood level decreases at the beginning of the dry season. Amos Rapoport in his seminal work House Form and Culture has classified the built environments by the manner in which they were constructed and, in more general terms, categorised built environments into three distinct groups: primitive building forms which exhibit very little individual variation and which are built through a collective effort, pre-industrial vernacular which is characterized by limited building types and which are usually constructed by tradesman and, finally, high-style and modern built forms which encompass many different specialized building typologies and which are constructed and designed by a team of specialists. 3 However, it is now possible to identify a fourth new emergent typology defined by its building materials, forms and construction methodologies. Rapid urbanisation has resulted in a belt of shanty towns and squalid settlements around the peripheries of the urban centres. The term ‘Urban Informality’ has entered the architectural lexicon to describe the cultural poverty, marginality and the manifestations of informal building processes in urban built-environments. 4 These informalities take place mostly at the intersections of the rural-urban interface. The building forms tend to be freely flowing and organic, and the choice of materials reflects the availability of urban remnants, such as rubber tires and corrugated metal scraps. They are built by the user, and provide shelter and reflect most of the cultural trades of the migrants. They are mostly perceived as non-vernacular, and a debasement of skills and traditions, such as in the examples of Barriadas of Peru, Favelas of Brazil and Gece Kondus of Ankara. While the floating structures of Chong Kneas may indeed be regarded as a particular manifestation of urban informality, I believe that they are more accurately defined by the term Hybrid-Informal Pre-Industrial Vernacular architecture. 5 An urban network has been interjected into the rural setting, where the hybrid vernacular architecture provides a setting for a new way of seeing or transferring building knowledge. These new emerging structures, which were mainly built to respond to cyclic flooding and tropical weather conditions, can also be viewed as reflections of local culture and knowledge transfer, and as valuable vessels within which social interactions are cultivated and maintained within the multi-cultural fabric of Cambodian society.
this page, from the top: four typical domestic dwellings of Chong Kneas, a Vietnamese boat house in Chong Kneas,
opposite, from the top: house details
a floating retail store and a grocery store,
boats attached to each dwelling, a foot bridge leading to main docking area
gardening in Chong Kneas, the interior of a Khemer house
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On Site review 21: stormy weather
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