The hybrid-informal (pre-industrial) vernacular structures of Chong Kneas are characterised by individual building forms that manifest the distinct cultural and ethnic backgrounds and traditions while at the same time display certain similarities with the construction style of the urban informalities, such as the use of non-indigenous urban materials. As a result of the socio-economic and political development of the country, these new emerging hybrid-informal vernacular built environments at the rural and urban intersections represent the macrocosm of traditional architectural morphologies. Cultural integration of Cambodian ethnic groups over the last two centuries has reduced the diversity of house forms to two main types, the Rong and the Kantaing style. 6 Even though the expression of social status at a domestic built
environment level is still evident, it centres on the celebration of differences rather than on exclusion. Although the Rong and the Kantaing style wood house internal organisations have maintained their presence in the village of Chong Kneas, both of these internal organisations are strongly modified by environmental factors to accommodate the yearly physical movements of the dwellings and to reflect the merging ethnic variation and social status of the occupant. * 1 Keskinen, Marko. Socio-Economic Survey of the Tonle Sap Lake Cambodia , M.Sc.Thesis. Helsinki University of Technology, 2003 2 Bailleux,Renauld. The Tonle Sap Great Lake: a pulse of life . Bangkok: Asia Horizon Books, 2003 3 Rapoport, Amos. House Form and Culture . New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1969 4 Alsayyad, Nezar and Roy, Ananya. ‘Urban Informality: Crossing Borders’, in Ananya Roy and Nezar Alsayyad (eds), Urban Informality , Maryland: Lexington Books, 2003 pp 1-6 5 This term was coined by the author. 6 Definitions can be found in Vireak,Prak. ‘Wooden Houses of the Early Twentieth Century: Settlement Patterns, Social Distinction and Ethnicity’, in Francois Tainturier (ed), Wooden Architecture of Cambodia: A Disappearing Heritage . New York: Rockefeller Foundation, 2006 pp 66-8
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