Rose Apple Square

Siem Reap Province, Cambodia

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Damnak Soriya

Rose Apple Square

Siem Reap Province, Cambodia

Firm

Re : Edge Architecture

Type

Residential › Apartment Multi Unit Housing
Commercial › Office Retail
Hospitality + Sport › Hotel
Landscape + Planning › Urban Green Space

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2024

Photos

Ra Monyserei (27), The Gentry Hub (2)

Located 20 mins from the World’ s heritage site 12th Century temples of Angkor Wat, Rose Apple Square gets its name from being located right on the Rose Apple Street. It is the first of its kind of mixed-use development in Siem Reap. The developer Urban Living Solutions’ vision was to create a thriving community space where people live, work and dream to shape their future. “It will be a melting pot of local and international city enthusiasts who are passionate about quality urban living and believe in mixing of people and ideas creates wealth in a city. Hence the Rose Apple Square will be our platform for human capital, building our future” - Urban Living Solutions

The master plan of the Rose Apple Square answers many challenges relating to the four main functional requirements of the brief: residential condominium, strata office, co-living and the Forum co-working space. The diversity of people who will come to use the square and call it a home will require meaningful design, proper planning and functional circulation.

Together with our client we developed the Rose Apple Square in the spirit of improving tourist and economic development, maintaining the quality of the environment, assuring balance between urban and rural areas and enhancing the value of both natural and cultural resources. Our master plan design is inclusive, sustainable and respecting the construction height of just 21-meter from the ground level.

We realized those constraints and being in a tropical climate allow us to be creative in our master planning, zoning and massing design of the whole complex. We began by asking ourselves questions about building a sense of close-knitted community while providing privacy and individualism, maintaining maximum green and open spaces, prioritizing pedestrians flow over vehicular movements, providing safety and security through vertical design of the landscaping and how to create double and triple-height ceiling spaces for spacious well-lit library café and co-working space to maximize productivity and people-nature connectivity while adhering to a 21-meter height restriction of Siem Reap.

While there was a height restriction, there was no restriction on digging. To maximize space, we decided to manipulate topography to create layers of semi-private and private spaces and manage traffic circulation between the Residences, the Forum, the Commune and the strata Office. The parking is underground, the forum is at the bottom, and the pool is at the top while the lobbies are in the middle ensuring access points for public and private spaces for convenience and secure.

The term “to go higher go lower” informed about steps and terraces that articulate from the main square down to the Forum and up to the yoga deck and the pool. “As architects, we saw the opportunity in stepping into the future by reflecting on the past” Chansan Hun, Lead Architect.

Rose Apple’s architecture is inspired by how life played out at Angkor Wat. It centered around shaded galleries and courtyards which directed the flow of the wind and the paths of the sun, flanked by articulated stone towers for quiet prayer and terraces for festivities while livelihoods bustled along the river surrounded by gorgeous jungles.

The 900-year-old steps that connect the courtyard to the temples which then lead to the terrace forming a complex layered structure became the inspiration as well as the solution to maximizing space, natural light and ventilation despite height restriction.

The street in the very middle of the development, passing through the central courtyard is the common area. It steps up and down breaking into a series of shaded courtyards which act as multi-purpose spaces comfortable for both hangouts and performance. The courtyard stepped in levels helps separating the more festive activities toward the retail and co-working zones with the more relaxed and well-being activities such as yoga and swimming at the residential and co-living zones.
The two main buildings situated on the two sides of the spine together with layered steps give the spine a very canyon-like feeling which inspired the landscape designer from Native Landscape to design the spine like a jungle reminiscence of the ones surrounding the buzzing courtyards and temples centuries ago.

The spine, mind, body and soul are also terms that are used to describe all the mixed-use components of the Rose Apple Square. The residences are the heart of the development, the retail activities are the soul bringing life to the square, the Forum are the minds that are coming together to create present and future while the spine is the activity-filled green courtyard that promote well-being to support the mind, the body and the soul of the whole development.

The two towers are oriented North-South direction to minimize wall areas that will be exposed to sunrise and sunset. This massing layout reduces the solar heat gain into living spaces, allowing only indirect natural light into interior spaces without the full effect of the tropical heat.

The Rose Apple Square architecture is people and nature centric. It is designed to include physical movement and handicap accessibility. It encourages social interaction through various communal spaces, and it promotes well-being for people who chose to live, work and play there. The building is naturally lit; it is a breathable building with cross-ventilation reducing the need of mechanical systems. The use of breeze blocks and sky-lit corridors ensure comfort and safety while lessen the energy consumption.

From the balcony, the infinity pool, and the elevated yoga deck everyone at the Rose Apple Square can see the sunset and sunrise right in the middle of the courtyard during certain months of the calendar years. This is possible because the courtyard spans entirely from east to west within the whole master plan.

All the residential units are articulated with cornered balcony to give a sense of individualism within the whole community. These rotated balconies with shifted breezeblock on the facades serve as the abstract inspiration from the ornated towers of the stylistic temples seen in Siem Reap. The two wings of the Rose Apple Square are distanced of minimum 20 meters between two opposite balconies to ensure that residents enjoy privacy while living in a vibrant community.