Pochentong's Green Rebirth: From Airport to Urban Oasis

The former Pochentong Airport, closed since September 2025 in favor of the gigantic Techo International Airport, is set to transform into a vast urban green lung. Cambodian authorities have announced the winners of an international competition aimed at reinventing these 450 strategic hectares within a capital experiencing rapid demographic and real estate expansion.

This project, blending historical preservation, climate resilience, and public amenities, embodies a bold political choice.

A Historical Legacy Amid Urban Saturation

Inaugurated in the 1950s under the reign of Norodom Sihanouk, Pochentong – or Phnom Penh International Airport – was a privileged witness to Cambodia's contemporary upheavals. From Vietnam War bombings to Khmer Rouge atrocities, and through the post-pandemic tourism boom, its runways welcomed millions of travelers.

Saturated as early as 2019 with over 6 million annual passengers, the airport had to make way for Techo, a 2,600-hectare high-tech complex designed by British firm Foster + Partners for $1.5 to 2.3 billion. Opened on October 16, 2025, after operations transferred on September 9, Techo targets 13 million passengers per year in its first phase, and up to 50 million ultimately, featuring a solar farm, commercial zones, and architecture integrating greenery and natural light.

Prime Minister Hun Manet has firmly ruled out any privatization, despite offers valued at several billion dollars. During Techo's inauguration, he declared: “This land remains state property, under state control. There are no plans to sell.” The site, maintained by the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation with an annual $3 million budget for maintenance and security, will retain one runway for military or civilian emergency landings.

Interministerial Task Force and Green Vision

In late January 2026, an interministerial task force led by Secretary of State Chheang Vannarith was formed by decree on January 10 to study the long-term management of the 386 to 450 hectares.

Objectives: massive reforestation, converting basins into anti-flood reservoirs, repurposing hangars into museums or cafés, and creating recreational spaces. Jogging trails, sports fields on the former tarmac, shaded walkways, and an aviation museum – a tribute to Sihanouk – will emerge, offering a “tropical Central Park” to 2.5 million residents suffocating from traffic, heat, and monsoons.

The first green spaces, with plantings and gardens, will open in early 2026, funded by the state without private debt. This accelerated timeline aims to counter Phnom Penh's immediate challenges: hellish car congestion, exhaust pollution, and recurrent flooding, worsened by climate change.

“Pochentong Reborn”: Queen Mother Library Takes the Lead

The international “Pochentong Reborn” competition, launched to design a monsoon-resilient “sponge city,” crowned the “Queen Mother Library Architecture” team, affiliated with the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam).

Their vision integrates a timeless park with controlled flood zones, memorial spaces reviving collective history, organic markets, bike paths, and exhibits on Cambodian aviation. QML Architects, a finalist, proposes lightweight structures evoking airplane wings, hanging gardens, and cultural modules fusing aeronautical heritage with climate challenges. An international jury of experts awarded this balance of innovation, ecology, sports, and tourism.

These projects fit into a broader strategy: transforming an obsolete asset into a public good, rejecting Cambodia's pervasive real estate speculation. Hun Manet insists: “Money isn't everything; here, we think of future generations.”

Regional Stakes

At the Southeast Asian scale, this model intrigues Bangkok and Hanoi, facing their own aging airports. Techo, already drawing rising post-pandemic tourism, propels Cambodia into the regional hub league, creating thousands of jobs. Pochentong, as a terrestrial complement, humanizes this shift: high-tech modernity on one side, sustainable roots on the other.

By mid-2026, phased plantings and trails will take shape. But challenges abound: monsoons intensified by warming, tensions with nearby residents accustomed to vacant land, and the task of preserving historical soul without dusty museification. This isn't mere reconversion, but an ecological and social manifesto. Soon, Phnom Penhois will trade gridlock for strolls on the old runway, strip by strip.