Eye of Lady Penh

Seeing through

Have you ever wondered why so many Phnom Penh apartment architects are sticking to the long, blind and narrow layouts, even when there seems to be no compelling reason to do so? We certainly do wonder (still). Those blind walls make excellent support for phone companies advertisements, but hey: these are supposed to be places where people live. They will be dark. Air won't flow: this would drive our feng-shui master ancestors crazy — if you look long enough (from the inside) you can almost see their ghosts bumping their heads on those walls!

But despair not: it took a long time, but we're beginning to witness some architectural common sense. Let there be windows! May the chi flow freely!