House for Penn Nouth
Penn Nouth was born in 1906, and was a senior figure in Prince Norodom Sihanouk’s “Sangkum Reastr Niyum” (People’s Socialist Community) government, as well as serving as prime minister several times between 1948 and 1969. It was under Penn’s direction that many of Cambodia’s leading architects of the period were sent for their formal training, including Lu Ban Hap, who studied in France. Penn Nouth’s house, located on Phnom Penh’s Russian Boulevard and designed by Vann Molyvann, is a two-storey structure dominated by a large elevated terrace. The horizontality of this form is offset by a pitched roof along one side. The upper level has a low ceiling yet a commanding view through windows which wrap around one corner of the home. The lower level, which serves also as the entry, is an airy and open space illuminated by elevated windows, in which functional staircases also double as decorative points of interest.
